Jodi Kantor’s piece on the president probably is not intended to be helpful, but since her audience is the New York Times’ readership, I don’t think it will do any harm. If the worst you can say about the president is that he is absolutely self-confident and driven to succeed in every area of his life, I don’t think too many of our intellectual elites are going to be turned off by a bit of arrogance. And who besides our intellectual elites read the New York Times?
The same piece by the Associated Press might do some damage.
I did like this bit:
This February, in an otherwise placid meeting with Democratic governors — routine policy questions, routine presidential replies — Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana asked Mr. Obama if he had what it took to win the 2012 race.
For a moment Mr. Obama looked annoyed, a White House aide said, as if he thought Mr. Schweitzer was underestimating him. Then he came alive. “Holy mackerel, he lit up,” Mr. Schweitzer said in an interview. “It was like a light switch coming on.”
No matter what moves Mr. Romney made, the president said, he and his team were going to cut him off and block him at every turn. “We’re the Miami Heat, and he’s Jeremy Lin,” Mr. Obama said, according to the aide.
Knicks fans will know what I mean when I say that Mitt Romney is more Ernie Grunfeld than Jeremy Lin.
