This was a man who told us “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is a United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America, a Latino America, an Asian America, There is a United States of America.”

This was a man who spoke eloquently of a new day in America. “The time has come,” he said, “to move beyond the bitterness and anger and pettiness that’s consumed Washington; to end the political strategy that’s been all about division. And instead make it about addition; to build a coalition for change that stretches through red states and blue states.”

It’s possible, I guess, that Barack Obama meant every word. But I suspect he meant that we could all achieve this wonderful, post-partisan, can’t-we-all-just-get-along America if – but only if – Republicans saw things the way he does; only if conservatives jumped on his liberal bandwagon and helped him “fundamentally transform the United States of America” — the way he thought it should be transformed.

I guess one more thing is possible: that he is so enamored with himself that he has no idea why he has become one of the most polarizing political figures in American history.