“What he wants,” says one of his friends, “is to be Barack Obama again.”

[kpete]

The West Wing, Season II
Almost overnight, Barack Obama overhauled his White House and rewrote much of the script. Now all he needs is a happy ending.

........................

Judging the ultimate political impact of this endeavor will be impossible until November 2012. But contrary to the feral howling on the left or the applause of many Beltway tapioca centrists, the objective here has less to do with tacking to the center than with finding a way back home. What Obama seeks is to reconnect with the essence of why he was elected, to reanimate the unifying, postpartisan, pragmatic yet visionary persona that inspired so many in the first place. “What he wants,” says one of his friends, “is to be Barack Obama again.”

.........8 more pages

The rest:
http://nymag.com/news/politics/70829/

[Enrique]

1. I guessed wrong

I was SURE that quote was going to be from a Politico story.

[grahamhgreen]

2. So do we.

[Common Sense Party]

3. Translation: He wants to go back to making lofty speeches and grand,

vague promises...he wants to be in campaign mode where everyone praises him for just TALKING, and he doesn't have to follow up and accomplish anything.

[vi5]

4. +1 (n/t)

[phleshdef]

5. Who gives a flying fuck? He has accomplished more in 2 years than some do in 8.

Although I know that isn't what he actually wants anyway. Obama is an overachiever by nature. But for arguments sake, if your petty little statement were true, it still wouldn't matter.

[Common Sense Party]

7. It's not petty. It's definitely true.

And yes, he has accomplished much. Too bad much of what he has achieved were Republican goals.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[Arkana]

9. Yeah, that stupid corpofascist Obummer hasn't done anything in two years!

Amirite guyz? *bong hit*

[Armstead]

6. Having read it in full, here's what is most disturbing

"Obama trusted Rouse’s judgment about what needed fixing but wanted more data. So in November and December, on his own initiative, he did something out of character: He let the outside in. Scheduling the appointments himself, sometimes on the sly, he invited a passel of Washington wise men to meet with him in the Oval Office with no staff present. Some of the names have been reported: former Clinton chiefs of staff John Podesta and Leon Panetta; former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein; former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and centrist jack-of-all-trades David Gergen; and, of course, Bill Clinton. But others have not. Longtime Clinton consigliere Vernon Jordan is one. And another, more surprising, is Matthew Dowd, who served as chief strategist for the 2004 Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. (Dowd declined to confirm the meeting, but the White House did.)"

Personally I have no problem with them turning to these people for advice.

But they all come from the Corporate/Political Elite Bullpen.

What is most distressing is that he did not also seek out the advice of other segments of the political spectrum and the larger population. It's pretty obvious what those folks were going to tell him to do -- repeat the same old same old that got us into this mess.

[phleshdef]

12. How do you know he didn't seek out advice from other segments?

That paragraph just says that "some of the name have been reported:". I have not researched who all he has met with these past few months, so I really don't know. But thats only a handful of names of what I can be sure, just based on common sense, is a much, much larger list.

[paulk]

13. Obama has doubled down on a failed economic policy

with this "shakeup"...

You don't have to look any farther than who he has appointed lately and who he is talking to. If this is Barrack being Barrack, well, I guess some of us knew who he was despite his campaign of grand speeches and empty slogans. Maybe someday he'll figure it out for himself.

[Arkana]

8. Let Bartlet be Bartlet, eh?

[lunatica]

14. Too bad 75% of Americans want the same thing

If there were only more of us we might convince him that we would back him. :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: