The elusive Obama presidency

This irrational exuberance was, of course, unsustainable. But it helps explain why the Obama administration is disappointing many Democrats, even though the president is poised to pass health care reform, has avoided any major foreign policy setbacks, and has not had to endure a debilitating White House scandal. For all the liberal anguish over Obama’s new Afghan policy and the death of the public option in the Senate health care bill, these presidential shifts in direction were not explicit violations of campaign promises. Yet the sense of letdown remains evident. It is as if Obama betrayed his most ardent acolytes by governing as a competent Clark Kent rather than leaping tall buildings in a single bound…

For the moment, though, this is still a White House shrouded in bubble wrap. Even though Obama dominates the TV screens and news headlines, there are surprising gaps in our knowledge of his 11-month presidency. An illustration: Obama has been elusive from the beginning in detailing the minimum that he would accept in a health care bill. (Cynics suggest that Obama would have gleefully signed any bill whatsoever that emerged from Congress — and declared it to be an epic victory.) While this never-show-your-cards vagueness may have been an adroit legislative strategy, it makes it more difficult to assess the success of the Senate bill. Is the legislation about what the president expected since it resembles the plan that Obama ballyhooed in the fall campaign? Or did the White House secretly hope to do better in terms of cost control, subsidy levels and, yes, a public entity to compete with insurance companies?