A swing and a miss from Politico

You’d think reporters John F Harris and Jim Vandehei were really on to something, when they write about President Obama’s apparent political resurrection:

This three-month metamorphosis says something about Obama’s survival skills, but the turnabout says even more about the mainstream media: Obama is playing the press like a fiddle.

But then you get to the very next graf:

He is doing it by exploiting some of the most long-standing traits among reporters who cover politics and government — their favoritism for politicians perceived as ideologically centrist and willing to profess devotion to Washington’s oft-honored, rarely practiced civic religion of bipartisanship.

On the other hand, maybe they’re right — “centrist” is relative. And for most of the Washington press corpse [I’m letting your typo stand -ed.], the left-left-left-of-center is, well, the center.

I used the word “apparent” above because, for now, the President’s increased stature is more apparent than real. Obama has pleased the middle of the country by accepting (if not embracing) the Bush-era tax rates and by appearing to hold the line on spending. But the real battles with the new Congress have yet to begin, and the GOP will have many opportunities to repaint Obama has the leftist he truly is.

Let’s hope they don’t blow their chances.