The conventional wisdom on Obama sure has changed in a heartbeat, hasn’t it? Compare and contrast:
Yesterday: calm and cool. Today: flat and remote, doesn’t show enough passion.
Yesterday: smart. Today: too cerebral for heartland.
Yesterday: analytical and lawyerly. Today: not connecting with voter anger.
Yesterday: needs to move quickly to take advantage of honeymoon. Today: tried to do too much.
Yesterday: plays the long game. Today: needs to pivot fast or lose his presidency.
Yesterday: policy driven. Today: too detached.
Yesterday: pragmatic. Today: not taking charge of process.
Yesterday: inspirational speaker. Today: uses teleprompter1 too much.
Yesterday: postpartisan. Today: has been crushed by partisanship.
So which was right: yesterday’s conventional wisdom or today’s? Personally, I preferred yesterday’s except for the whole postpartisan thing. The public says they like it, but it was always doomed to failure. Time to move on.
1Sorry, I meant TelePrompTer™. And I have to admit that his reliance on it even in small settings is getting kind of weird.