The Two Obamas

There is the Obama who the voters are rejecting, who has worn out his welcome;

and

There is the Obama, his worshipfullness, who "is just too talented to do what ordinary people do".

Which Obama is your Obama ?

When Peggy Noonan’s On . . .

November 5, 2010 3:54 P.M.

By Mike Potemra

She is on. Here’s her comment on President Obama’s Wednesday press conference: “Viewers would have found it disappointing if there had been any viewers.” She continues: “The president is speaking, in effect, to an empty room. From my notes five minutes in: ‘This wet blanket, this occupier of the least interesting corner of the faculty lounge, this joy-free zone, this inert gas.’”

A related note: About three years ago, I heard President Bush make the argument for one or another of his policies, something foreign-policy-related, and his case on it seemed to me quite persuasive. A couple of days later, to my great disappointment, the poll results came in: the same lopsided rejection of the policy that existed before Bush spoke. Puzzled, I asked a prominent conservative intellectual of my acquaintance what could account for the American people’s failure to grasp what seemed to me so sensible. He answered: “It’s not so much that they are rejecting Bush’s argument, as that they’ve simply stopped listening to him.”

It took Bush six years to reach that point. Obama has worn out his welcome practically overnight.

O POTUS, Our POTUS

November 5, 2010 3:21 P.M.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez

In “The ego factor: Can Obama change?“ Politico today runs a priceless quote from Valerie Jarrett that should be from The Onion but actually comes from David Remnick’s book on Obama:

I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. … He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability — the extraordinary, uncanny ability — to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make sense out of them, and I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually. … So, what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but somebody with such extraordinary talents that had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy. … He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.