The British have a saying about the twin rules of journalism: first simplify, then exaggerate.
Perhaps Barack Obama can comfort himself with the reality that his current travails are both more complicated in their causes and less dire in their consequences than they are being portrayed in the Washington echo chamber.
There is a useful cautionary note for everyone who is prone to withering judgments about Obama’s stumbling performances in recent weeks: No institution in American life is more resilient than the modern presidency, and no politician talented enough to capture the office should ever be underestimated.
Bill Clinton, of course, is the supreme example. He was counted out after a clumsy start in 1993, after losing the House in 1994, after a sex scandal in 1998, and, as a new ex-president, after a pardon scandal in 2001.
Barack Obama is a man of different talents, instincts and interests than Clinton. But now that Washington is in pile-on mode — including us — it’s not a bad time to remember that there are some reasons why he is among the most talented politicians of his generation.
Recent bad headlines have not diluted his enduring personal and political assets, and, so long as he occupies the White House, there is no other person with more power to set the national agenda.
In that spirit, here’s a roster of what’s still right with Obama:
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