Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post and others have noted that President Obama seems a few beats behind things; unable to anticipate things as they develop, and awkward when forced to catch up. When he responds, his answers seem lacking. Good politicians are in tune with their times, great ones foresee them, but Obama seems out of step with his times, and behind them.

He is in the right job (he thinks), at the wrong moment, handed a crisis he never expected, and is doing his best to ignore. He was told, and believed, he was the new FDR at the start of a new age of expansion, and it would be his job to redeem the old liberal vision.