obama needs to attack. he needs to think big and ditch the clintonism. or think small and embrace the clinton within. he must speak and act boldly. etc etc. all i can say is i'm glad i'm not in a position where i need to thrash meaninglessly back and forth in response to the whims of the polls or the off-cycle elections or the opinion-makers. politics must be the very worst career ever invented, the least compatible with anything resembling human life. my advice? bo should pretend he's a singular - i mean a particular - human being and do what he thinks is best. maybe he should boycott the state of the union address.

really these people are all like: he needs to re-invent himself right now! i don't know. would you say that to your spouse, your friend, your parent, your child? can you expect that, really, of anyone? how can a human being meet demands like that without becoming nothing at all? at the bottom line of all these recommendations is the profound slop at the heart of our era: that making assertions is merely strategic, i.e. that there is no truth, and that we are the stories we tell, i.e. that there are no persons. y'all have fun! maybe there's a basketball game on.