I remember seeing some video posted from a friendly Obama townhall meeting just prior to Christmas last year that had the same feeling. He was getting absolute softballs (though a bit loopy in a couple of cases) and he was muffing them into the dirt.

I’ve tried to square these episodes with the times that he actually did seem to be on the ball, specifically the GOP retreat.

The conclusion that I have come up with is that he views politics as a giant law review. He’s far more comfortable when he can critique an argument then when he has to make a response grounded in policy specifics. Even most of his attacks on the GOP aren’t made against GOP policies, they are made against the reasons (he claims) that conservatives support those policies.