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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.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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