If you've been bothered by Barack Obama's presidency, but just couldn't put your finger on what was wrong, it can now be revealed: He's just too good for us and too darn smart to be president:
As devotees of Barack Obama know all too well, qualities that made him so attractive as a candidate — an affinity for subtle arguments, a tendency to carefully weigh his options — have at times proved less useful in his role as president.
[. . .]
The documentation is cringe-worthy in places, but it's also remarkable in that it reminds us just how little the young Obama resembles a potential president of the United States. He was so self-consciously cerebral, he appears headed for the Supreme Court or the State Department, not to a place where braininess and critical thinking can often seem less prized than gut instincts and schmoozing skills. Not a place, in other words, like the Oval Office.
[. . .]
It's hard not to come away from the Vanity Fair article without feeling, strangely enough, that the White House is holding Obama back. The gulf between the brilliant young man who wanted to change the world and the stymied president who can barely pass a piece of legislation, the cosmopolitan wearer of the sarong and the lock-step wearer of the flag pin, suggests he could have served the American people far more effectively if he weren't bogged down being the leader of the free world.
In other words, it's not necessarily a thinking man's game now. Tell a smart kid he might grow up to be president and, these days, he just may tell you he has better things to do.
"Bogged down being the leader of the free world." Remarkable.
