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I’m both surprised and not. I’m surprised that he’s caving here specifically, unsurprised that he’s caving on something that will piss off, um, people like me. It’s part of the game, and reasonable people know it’s coming. I think Atrios puts it best with Shorter Many Months of Self Righteousness: “You all thought Obama was liberal Jesus, and I tried to warn you that he’s not!!!” (If Obama actually believes in the bill and this isn’t a ploy, well, fine, that’s his right–but I can’t help but suspect that rolling this out late on a Friday afternoon was a news dump, and that would be pretty raw.)
Some of the Kool Kids in the media think that the blogosphere is in thrall to a cult of personality, and while that may be true here and there, for the most part I think it’s a gross misperception. To use a sports term, I think the etherial appeal comes from Obama’s “upside”–the idea that, because of certain things about his training and background, he has a lot more potential to be an appealing president than Hillary Clinton. We know her game. I think a lot of his supporters looked at the options and thought the worst-case scenario would be that he’d be as or slightly less appealing than Clinton. It’s a gamble, but the odds look good.
