The myth of Obama’s comeback

Just a week after a shellacking at the polls, Barack Obama is back! Or so has been the suggestion this week — on the heels of Obama’s aggressive endorsement of net neutrality, his big climate deal with China, and leaks suggesting he’s still going to go big on immigration.

The New York Times says Obama’s “defying label of lame duck.” Politico observes that “there’s already some swagger returning to his step.” The Washington Post notes Obama has said he wants to “squeeze every last little bit of opportunity” to push his agenda and in recent days “he has shown that he meant it.” The New Yorker says, simply, that he’s had an “unexpectedly good week.”

This is a grand slam of assessment — his brand is doing much better post-election than he says it did pre-election — but it’s way too early to suggest that he’s somehow crawled out of the dark place that voters put him last week.