Michael Parkin, the faculty voice who described the Oberlin trend, placed the change of affection in relationship to the president in an emotional framework.

In a conversation after the symposium, he spoke of a love affair that, to a palpable degree, had wound down. “It started hot and heavy,” he said. “And with extremely idealized notions. Then a reality dawned in the way that a once charming laugh becomes an irritating giggle: He’s a politician who no longer corresponds to the grand ideas that many students had in their heads about him. And that’s deflating and disheartening for them.”…

I can hear Oberlin gag. For a description of student reaction in his politics classes to Bin Laden’s end, I went back to Mr. Parkin. Mr. Obama might not be overjoyed to know that he reported it centered on questions like “why were we shooting an unarmed man” and “violating the sovereignty of a foreign nation”?

That’s Oberlin, a college Camelot of the left whose opinions are probably more often in opposition to the country’s instincts than ahead of them.