Hectorer in Chief

Michael Gerson on President Obama’s New Peevishness:

Obama’s approach is particularly self-defeating when it comes to the left. He desperately needs to inspire Democratic intensity in a midterm election where most of the energy seems on the other side. The method he has chosen is to accuse progressives of lethargy. People need to buck up, he says, in his most disappointed tone. Their lack of energy is inexcusable and irresponsible. If people now want to take their ball and go home, he snaps, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.

Two years after an inspiring presidential campaign, this approach shows a total misunderstanding of what political inspiration means. It amounts to an argument that the sleepy, rattled, unserious left is simply not grateful enough to Obama himself. Unlike the president, they didnt understand how hard things would be. They underestimate the magnitude of his personal accomplishment. Now they must be shamed into enthusiasm.

That’s spot on. I’m just sorry it wasnt until just now that I coined the phrase New Peevishness.