Steve Hayward draws attention to the fact that Richard Cohen at the Washington Post! has given up on Obama. Very late in the day and much too late to do anything about it, but there is this.

The presidency has changed Barack Obama. His hair has gone gray, which is to be expected, and he looks older, which is also to be expected, but his eloquence has been replaced by petulance and he has lost the power to persuade, which is something of a surprise. You can speculate that if the Obama of today and not Winston Churchill had led Britain in World War II, the Old Vic Theatre Company would now be doing “Hamlet” in German. (Emphasis added.)

It’s not that Obama has lost his gift of eloquence. His problem is he often has nothing to say. . . Obama’s self-inflicted predicament was apparent in the statement he issued following the Paris terrorist attacks. He spoke coldly, by rote — saying all the right things in the manner of a minister presiding at the funeral of a perfect stranger.

He is out of words because he is out of ideas. Consequently, he ought to listen to others. They’re not the ones who are popping off. He is.

It’s not like Cohen says that it was the worst imaginable mistake to have elected Obama, only that he cannot come up with some kind of rhetorical flourish to express the point he needs to make. Except that Obama doesn’t want to make such points. None of that would coincide with his beliefs. If after seven years that’s not obvious I have no idea what could ever be done to get such people to see what has gone on before their eyes. The more important question is how did Obama get elected in the first place and what can be done to prevent such disasters from happening again?