What you quote is very Obama— it is measured and smart. It does not matter what he says or what he does— if he goes on the attack or answers questions with reason (maybe not deserved) and betrays how he really feels and what he sees and knows with his laugh, that you have in quotations— because in watching Obama speak, again trying to see what is interesting, consistent, changing, etc— I have noticed that he speaks truth in a way that is subtle and at the same time that he speaks the truth, he usually laughs— his face lights up but never breaks into real laughter— it is quick and it says it all.

Just go back to the speech he gave at the Dem convention for Kerry— when he talks about a real democracy wherein every vote counts, he qualifies it by saying something like “most of the time” —and one big grin, a little laugh and a knowing look around the room.

The long/short of it is— I hope he keeps going the way he is going because he will gather support if he does and he may get a chance to do a lot more in his second term. I slide him the benefit of the doubt — he used the wrong tactic for nearly a year but, as you noted, that tactic was always in his playbook, or, less cynically, his deeply held belief that we are really purple; we are united. I give him, right now, tremendous credit for learning quickly and going aggressive— a year is nothing, if you think about it, to let go of a long-held conviction.