he has chosen (and was chosen) to serve in the most prominently public position on the planet, in the role with more life and death responsibility than any other one soul.

is it any wonder he inspires criticism, from both wings? that's what you chose with centrism.

that's why 'hedge fund democrat' is so descriptive.

(h/t Bruce)

i agree some of the attacks are personal, and i have gone there myself, and am not proud of it, but his persona is all we can work with, and we'd be remiss as political observers if we were't deeply interested in the psychology of leadership, in its widest historic sense.

couple his public self with our capacity to parse and scry, and it sort of has to get a bit personal.

yet even the most damning of criticisms here at ET have not been mean-spirited, at least imo.

it's the kitchen he chose to cook in, and frankly, no matter how much heat these comments (and those dementedly beckian teabag astroturfers are really mean) may contain, he looks like he's staying the north side of cool, so...

if i were obama i don't know if i'd have the stones to do what needs to be done, so i never call him a coward. i respect him, and like ARG, find him pleasant, especially with his power. there's so one else even laughably close to his votegetting pull, so i wouldn't worry too much about obama personally, hard as it is to believe sometimes, it appears he was more sizzle than steak, what's really important is to work around him, and beyond him, as Bruce so correctly reminds us.

if anyone could surprise me (again!) it would be mr enigma himself, and i could not more want to be wrong about my doubts... i just wish this was all a great novel, not real life, you know? then one could really stop reading once in a while, and let it all go.

but when so much is at stake, and change accelerating exponentially, it's near impossible!

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~