Beast in the jungle

... Obama has spent a lifetime creating his persona — superior, wise, above all parties and interests, all-seeing, calm, unflappable.

But as Drew Westen, a liberal psychology professor at Emory University wrote in The Times on Sunday, puzzling about what has happened to his former hero’s passion, the president never identifies the villains who cause our epic problems.

It’s unclear, Westen wrote, whether that reflects his aversion to conflict or a fear of offending donors, or both.

Obama’s assumption that you can rise above ascribing villainous motives has caused him to waste huge chunks of his first term seeking bipartisanship from Republicans who were playing him for a dupe. And it has led to Americans regarding the nation’s capital as a place of all villains and no heroes.  ...Maureen Dowd

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... Obama arrived at Dover again Tuesday afternoon. Nothing about his presidency felt new anymore; he looked tired, solemn and gray as he stepped onto the tarmac. Since his last trip, 874 more Americans have died in Afghanistan, and Obama has signed 874 handwritten condolence letters. The war is fully his now. This time, he went to Dover to greet the charred and dismembered remains of Americans he had ordered to Afghanistan himself. ...WaPo

Comments

[Neo]

“Obama’s assumption that you can rise above ascribing villainous motives has caused him to waste huge chunks of his first term seeking bipartisanship from Republicans who were playing him for a dupe.”

This line gives Obama (and the Republicans) too much credit.

It should read …
“Obama’s assumption that he could rise above his personal inadequacies has caused him to waste huge chunks of his first term trying to ‘will’ his own predetermined outcome while the Republicans (and some Democrats) were hoping he would get a clue on how to negotiate in a bipartisan manner (or any manner for that matter). DC isn’t Chicago after all.“

[PW]

You can't wish away those villainous motives. They're there, they're real, and they've been admitted to by Republican leaders in statements to the media.