Obama: No longer Mr. Cool?

What early stumbles have done to President Obama's aura of competence

President Obama's “desire to begin a 'post-partisan' era may have backfired,” said Michael Hirsh in Newsweek. “Taxgate” has dimmed his luster, and despite the president’s high approval ratings he has let the Republicans control the debate on saving the economy. What happened to the “bold leadership” the Obama team promised?

Nobody wants to follow a guy who has become “laughable” after two weeks in office, said Victor Davis Hanson in National Review Online. Obama preached ethics, then assembled a team of tax dodgers. He tried using the stimulus to shower Democratic constituencies with cash—we’re “teetering on an Obama implosion” here.

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