Presidential Popularity Redux

The Newsprint

Here's Jacob Weisberg at Slate doing a Freudian assessment of Obama's "connection" problem. I stand by my previous posting on the issue. It's patently ridiculous to view his ability to relate as somehow unrelated (pun intended) to his policies.

I don't buy this image of Obama as connecting in an analytical manner at all. Indeed, his campaign was distinctively even notoriously light on substance and heavy on emotions. Yes, Obama made an incisive statement on race in Philadelphia during the Jeremiah Wright fiasco, but the bulk of his oratory has been emotive and, it would seem, empty.

This view of Obama as hyper-rational and aloof was first tried on by Republicans trying to limit his striking personal appeal. Now, it seems, it's serving as comfort to self-deluding Democrats who can't understand why, on the face of it, their policy agenda is being rejected by the American people.