What Hasn’t Obama Done for Us Now?
by Rebecca Schoenkopf
The editorial page editor of the Washington Post, a reliably conservative voice in a media town where not a Sunday goes by without President John McCain on the talk shows, has penned some thoughts and then actually hit "send."
And what is Fred Hiatt opining on today? Obama isn't acting happy enough. Take it away, Fred!
I know, it's the world's hardest job, and between war and the world economy collapsing, he didn't have the first year he might have wished for. And, yes, he's damned either way: With thousands of Americans risking their lives overseas and millions losing their jobs at home, we'd slam him if he acted carefree.
Still, I think Americans want a president who seems, despite everything, to relish the challenge. They don't want to have to feel grateful to him for taking on the burden.
It goes on and on like that, sometimes being so reasonable as to point out the ready arguments against his facile column.
We understand that, even without war and recession, it wouldn't be easy. His predecessor partied and stuck him with the tab. The Republicans are reliably obstructionist; his Democrats reliably unreliable. The media are carping, superficial and relentless. He is a prisoner of the Secret Service.
Blahblahblahetceterablah, and
Less lugubriousness wouldn't necessarily buy him a health-care bill. But in the long run, Americans might find it easier to root for or with Obama if he'd show us, despite everything, that he's happy we hired him.
I guess he doesn't have an editor with the balls to tell him no, or to point out that you shouldn't describe the media as carping and superficial when that media is precisely you.
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