He's not there, 100%; but perhaps still developing his own style.
Reluctant to pointedly raise the bar on the competition, to throw down the gauntlet, in the way Reagan was able to consistently do, without appearing "disagreeable". Still, the conciliatory tone is very wise and probably genuine.
Not reaching out over the heads of Congress or the press, yet. (Compare: "If you don't want your taxes raised when the Bush cuts expire, I ask you to call your new GOP Congressman.")
Missing that mysterious combination of 'stump speech' or clear talking-points and leadership "vision".
Separately, someone (Glenn Greenwald) should do a Nexis search to see how many times the word "gas tax" appeared before the election and how many times it is about to come up, just to show that we never really talk about anything that matters during election time, that $4 billion dollars spent on campaigning is probably at least 75% eyewash.
p.s.
- Accelerated depreciation will add to the deficit - it's a huge tax break.
- Sad to see, in general, that it was only the GOP grasping to get their brand back, that led to the mainstreaming of the term "credit card of next generation", when the Dems sat there and let Bush use 'the credit card' for eight long years, focusing their major protest on Iraq.
- Loved the way he made a molehill out of the '1099 issue'.
- How truly humble it is for a President not to even mention that he's running two hot wars and ask people to 'give him a break' about all the things he's left undone? I continue to be stunned by pundits who seem to not remember or have no consideration of just how much energy and life has been sucked out of wartime Presidents - just look at their white hair - by the enormous consequence of having troops in harms way, of national security so directly on the line.
