Maybe This Is Why We're Tired of Him

I know Obama's trying to run a different kind of campaign, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess his political advisors will tell him to change his tune when answering a question from a seven year old...

“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”

Yeah, there's some things I'd like to change about my country (for example, I'd really like to see Michael Bolton's albums destroyed). But if a seven year old asks me this question, I think I'd say that I love my country, want to make it a better place and can't wait to for an opportunity to get to work doing that.

My guess is that Obama meant all of those things. But the supposedly brilliant natural politician failed to say them. This lends credence to the view being spoken in plenty of places that Obama's brilliance with a teleprompter is not matched when he's speaking extemporaneously. To be fair, everyone screws up occassionally. But it will be intriguing to see how much coverage Obama's rhetorical screwups will get in the coming months. Will the right be the only ones pointing them out?

Meanwhile, maybe this is part of the reason for the Messiah Fatigue. I'm sure part of it is that the adulatory press coverage gets tiresome -- but I'm also certain people get turned off when a politician tells a seven year old the country's future sucks unless he gets elected. Yeah, I know that's not exactly what he said -- but it's a fair interpretation, and when you're responding to a seven year old, your response needs to be direct enough that it can't be interpreted that way. That is, if you're a brilliant politician whose supporters believe you're the Chosen One.