Obama's Gandhi Act Ties Supporters in Knots

Even President Obama's fans are beginning to wonder when—or even if—his "inner fighter" is going to emerge, writes Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe. His collaborative style entranced many during the campaign, but supporters are groaning as the president listens calmly to the opposition rather than putting up his dukes. It’s telling that, when a student asked his ideal dinner date, the president answered, "Gandhi.'

But Gandhi wouldn’t have been an effective politician in the current climate—one that saw Joe "You lie!" Wilson raise hundreds of thousands of dollars after his outburst. “For better or worse," Goodman writes, Obama “is as tenacious in rejecting polarized politics as in promoting health care reform. He’s not just after a policy change but a cultural change. Indeed, he sees them as fundamentally connected.” (More Barack Obama stories.)