When the Daschle disaster hit, Obama wisely engaged in a multi-network “I am sorry, I screwed up” tour. That reinforced his "things are different now in Washington" image.

Anything that comes across as politics-as-usual is bad for his brand; all things outside of that, such as bipartisan outreach (whether or not it works) are good.

In many ways, Obama’s different-Washington line in the sand has boxed-in his administration.

All of the adults in the room know that many of the really smart, experienced hands in Washington have been in government before or hang around government – a path that leads directly to K Street, a.k.a. “Lobbyist Row.”

Proselytizing during a campaign about not using lobbyists may look great on newspaper editorial pages. Yet branding lobbying as horse dung leaves you open to eventually stepping in it.

“When it comes to lobbyists, politicians need to stop acting holier than thou,” said Bert Rockman, Purdue University political science professor. “Yes, it plays well with public opinion, but if the bar is set high enough, no one who knows anything will be in a position to do anything.”

The consequence is that we will have a government of incompetents and incompetence.

Our system depends on money. Either we change that system so that it’s less money-dependent, or we accept that people leaving office will work directly or indirectly for the numerous interests that have a stake in what government does.

“Look, everyone knows the Obama brand is ‘change,’ but it does not take much to prove it is not,” warns GOP strategist Castellanos. “… It is something much more fluid and flexible.”

Rockman puts it a different way: Obama is definitely on message, “but this is a message he may live to regret.”