I've missed reading Andrew

Today, Andrew Sullivan returned from his annual vacation from blogging, and one of his first posts he emphasized a theme that he's talked about a lot in his coverage of Obama.  I've been getting more and more dispirited over recent political turns, but now I see the same pattern that Obama has consistently followed in his dealings with his opposition.  Sullivan says it better than I can:

Yesterday's speech by the president, if you missed it, was a barn-stormer. Yes, it's the same old, same old pattern: he allows the opposition not just to vent and criticize (as they should) but to control the discourse for months, to drown out every other sound, to vent and crow and vilify and intimidate the cable news weenies into quivering puppies in need of crate-training. And then he comes back with a speech like that one.