Presidents in mirror may be smaller than they appear

President Obama is shrinking. [Link]

Like a leaky balloon, Barack Obama keeps getting smaller. "The president is declaring to the world that he is simply too weak to govern," Peter Wehner observes. "Not only that, he wants all of America to know that he's darn frustrated about it. You can even hear it in his voice." That last comment isn't Wehner's evaluation but a paraphrase of the president's own words: "Maybe you hear it in my voice--that's why I'm frustrated. Because you deserve better."

Wait, it gets worse. Last night Obama was in New York for a fund-raiser. At that event he elaborated on the "you deserve better" theme: "What was remarkable was to see outside of Washington the enthusiasm, the energy, the hopefulness, the decency of the American people. And what I said to them is you deserve better. You deserve better than you've been getting out of Washington over the last 2½ months--for that matter, for the last 2½ years."

For the last 2½ years. Is that not as explicit an acknowledgment of failure as has ever been heard from a sitting president? A nice equivoque comes from another headline, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Dreaded Carp: Can They Be Stopped?" Yes, they can--but alas, probably not until November 2012.