Dear Ben Smith: You are a fucking media tool. (updated)

[ProSense]

Who's afraid of Barack Obama?

The new president spent his first months in office coasting on love and popularity. In his health care speech to Congress Wednesday, he rallied after a rough summer with a new round of tough talk.

But with the moment of truth fast approaching on Capitol Hill for the signature item on his domestic policy, Obama seems to lack one item that most presidents find helpful to have in their White House tool box: Fear.

On the left and on the right, interest groups and members of Congress have been eagerly enjoying the rewards—publicity, negotiating leverage—of challenging the president or dissenting from his policies.

<...>

Obama has been accused of weakness before. In the summer and fall of 2007, he found himself reassuring even his own backers that he could face Hillary Clinton. In the summer and fall of 2008, he beat back Senator John McCain's attempt to cast him as effete.

more

Updated to add, Ben quotes Rove:

"His problem has been almost from the beginning that while Democrats on the Hill appreciate him, they're occasionally inspired by him, they're not all that impressed with him," said Bush political advisor Karl Rove. "They appreciate his diffident attitude, but I'm not sure it's one that inspires either fear or respect."

[babylonsister]

1. We all know it, so why do we keep posting their swill? nt

[ProSense]

2. That's the reason they need to be called out for their BS. n/t

[babylonsister]

3. You're right, and I do it, too. politico is becoming so predictable. nt

[Thrill]

4. Politico is a RW rag. But the message is true. They don't fear him

and in order to get his agenda through he needs to learn how to be tough. We haven't seen it from him.

You know they don't fear him because of how Democrats talk on TV, clearly against his agenda. Say what you want about Bush, you would have a hard time finding Republicans on TV not pushing his agenda. They certainly wouldn't criticize him. We've heard Democrats down right say Obama isn't leading on TV. You can't be an effective President being so weak and willing to compromise.

[fugop]

6. Not afraid of Bush

Seriously, I don't think anyone of them feared Bush. Now Cheney, maybe! I mean, who wouldn't?

[ProSense]

8. The piece is bullshit. Who made fear a defining factor? It also ignores the fact

that Wilson wimped out in record time, apologizing not once, but twice.

Smith is a tool of the highest order.

[Phx_Dem]

5. Politico has a couple (literally) of decent journalists, but Ben Smith

has never been one of them.

[MidwestTransplant]

7. well if Karl Rove says it

[otohara]

9. He Lies

and lies, and lies, and lies -