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Worse yet, from Obama's perspective, Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff delivers a written tongue-lashing (in contrast to the french kisses more generally received by the administration) that starts with a damning indictment: "Sheesh, the guy is Jimmy Carter." Though it's almost impossible to imagine how, the piece actually gets tougher from there.
It's beginning to feel a bit like a turning point for the Obama administration. Even its former enthusiasts -- and the president's more honest boosters -- are beginning to look at our new president and finding something distinctly wanting.
The critique is a distinctly dangerous one for the administration. Being cast as without substance, in Noonan's formulation, and having an ideological compatriot like Wolff write something like, "Be a man, man" is potentially politically lethal. And that's particularly true for Barack Obama, a relative newcomer to the national scene.
America only now is becoming acquainted with the President they knew so little of when he was elected. And first impressions are hard to change.
It's not always easy, but one
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There's truth to Noonan's and Wolff's critiques of Obama: He does seem flighty and unfocused -- doing his basketball brackets, complaining about the "Simon Cowell's of Washington", throwing St. Patrick's Day parties, talking, talking, always talking -- even as AIG executives pocket bonuses, the Treasury remains unstaffed, the economy limps along and proposals to settle Guantanamo inmates in the US are floated.
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