Emerging: The Real Barack Obama

Carol Platt Liebau | October 05, 2009 12:39 PM

It shouldn't surprise anyone that behind closed doors, the President is pushing vigorously for the public option.

It would be refreshing if he would stand behind what he believes with, say, the moral conviction of a Ronald Reagan. But he won't. He's smart enough to know his ideas are out of the mainstream. He'll try to keep his personal ideas as private as possible not because he believes they're wrong, of course, but because he believes that America isn't smart enough --

good enough -- to agree with him about them.

Back on January 30, I wrote about how Obama projects a moderate temperament and hopes everyone will be taken in to believe that the moderation extends to substance. The problem now, for Obama, is that if he's actually forced to show his cards on the public option, it will reveal once and for all the gap between his demeanor and his politics.