How Wilkes-Barre and the Rest of America Rolled the President

"The guy is in your face," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution. "He has been very reticent until now about really using the bully pulpit, he didn't use press conferences very well or very often, which was foolish. Now he's doing it again and again, I think he is wearing them down and it's very effective."

That quote is taken from Politico's July 15 post "How Obama Rolled the Other Side". I guess this is why history is usually written after the fact. Reading the article with Obama's helpless capitulation in the rear view mirror reminds one of some B movie from the 60's. No, not Willard but that getting close. The point of the article was Obama was doing everything the writer, Julie Mason, thought he should be doing; taking his case to the voters with press conferences, summoning congressional leaders to the White House, comparing congress to his two children who get their homework done days ahead of schedule and declaring, "It's time for congress to do the right thing". Here was a tough, young, brilliant, aggressive, charismatic, focused, Harvard educated, intellectual doing battle with the Philistines from Capitol Hill; where "maximalist" Republicans took "absolutist" positions and clung to there dogmas and sacred cows as tightly as the bitter clingers of Eastern Pennsylvania held to their religion and guns. "Words, just Word's" but presidents who use words like "maximalist" and "absolutist" really ought to buy a thesaurus.

To be fair to Ms Mason her hero didn't measure up to her expectations (or those of the entire Democratic Party for that matter) but writing about politics is not the same as writing fiction. In fiction the author knows the outcome. Maybe "How Wilkes-Barre and the Rest of America Rolled the President" will be a future title.