New Obama? This Is the Real Obama

Liberals are hailing the emergence of a "new" President Obama, a "soak-the-rich, veto-threatening, self-proclaimed class warrior," writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. But it's actually just a return of the old Obama who took office with "radical" ideas, he of the gigantic stimulus and the "quasi-nationalization" of health care. This shift to back to populism has fired up the Democratic base, but it's not merely a political ploy.

"It is more than just a pander to his base," writes Krauthammer. "It is a pander to himself: Obama is a member of his base. He believes this stuff. It is an easy and comfortable political shift for him, because it’s a shift from a phony centrism back to his social-democratic core, from positioning to authenticity." Fair enough, Krauthammer adds. Now that the real Obama has returned, voters can weigh in. "The country will soon choose," he writes, "although not soon enough." Full column here. (More President Obama stories.)