I have no doubt that President Obama is working hard. I listened to his news conference yesterday on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. His logic is impeccable. His ability to avoid hyperbole is admirable. In fact, he often reminds me of a Zen monk. I actually like that about him.
However, he hasn't been elected to be a Zen monk. He is a politician and administrator whose job is to fix things and to report back to his employers, the American people, very few of whom are Zen practitioners.
As one of his sympathetic constituents, I have one simple request of Mr. Obama: Could you please unbottle some of your real personality, sir?
This Harvard-Law-debate persona is inappropriate in some circumstances. It reads as duplicitous, not measured. It reads as haughty, elitist detachment, not as dispassionate professionalism. This gulf, between the person in the role and the role as he perceives it, could undermine the value of an exemplary presidency. If it does, we may all suffer for it.
