Critics On President Obama's Governing Style Are Making Their Opinions Known

Is President Obama a loner? REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Obama The Loner -- Chris Cillizza, Washington Post

The Post’s Scott Wilson penned a provocative piece over the weekend that cast President Obama’s current political problems through the lens of his loner tendencies.

Wrote Wilson:

This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors. His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President Biden, an old-school political charmer.

Time and again in our reporting over the last few months, this strain of thinking has come up — and the deeper President Obama’s political troubles grow, the more often we hear it.

In the wake of President Obama’s press conference last Thursday, there was considerable skepticism — bordering on contempt — for his assertion that now was the time for the Senate to pass his jobs bill.

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My Comment: What is my take .... politics is a team sport where working together is more of a requirement than an option. The advantage for President Obama is that he is the President, and the bully pulpit is his. But this advantage can only take him so far, and if the economy does not improve by this time next year .... even all of his allies and supporters will not be enough to give him a second mandate.