With the reportorial lifting provided by Jonathan Alter, Maureen Dowd belittles that which I admire most in this president:
At East Room events, Alter writes, Obama’s vibe was clearly: "I’ll flash a smile, then, please, someone get me the hell out of here. It wasn’t that he had to be back in the Oval Office for something urgent. He just didn’t want to hang out for an instant longer than he had to, even with long-lost Chicago friends." The president sometimes "exuded an unspoken exasperation: I saved Detroit, the Dow is up, we avoided a depression--I have to explain this to all of you again?"
Regrettably, yes. Our attention span is wanting. Real, lasting, major accomplishments can't hold up to the piercing drama of scandals, sensationalism and scuttlebutt. Politics is not known as a game, or a sport, for nothing.
Still, I too believed the nation--after W.'s eight horribly hair-raising years--was ready for a term or two of quiet competence. A changeup, if you will; or "normalcy," as the neologist and president W.G. Harding called it. But I was wrong, nearly as wrong as you, Mr. Obama. As I and others began warning during your first term, you simply cannot take the intelligence of the American electorate for granted. If you've a major fault, Mr. President, it's that: You seem to believe we'll "get it," naturally.
Nope, you've got to hammer it. It's tedi0us and tiring and seems utterly unnecessary, I know, but it's part of the game. And you can't change the rules. I admire you for trying, but ...