The POLITICO's John Harris dons his J. John François-Lyotard clothing to conjure up the seven meta-narratives that the White House is most afraid of. In rough order, they are:
1. Obama is spending too much and doesn't seem to care about it.
2. Obama is too cool for school -- too Spocklike -- unable to make Clintonian emotional connections on key issues.
3. Obama's political team is insular and mean; Chicago-style brawlers.
4. Obama doesn't push hard enough; he doesn't follow through; he takes the path of least resistance on everything.
5. Americans want their POTUS to be an exceptionalist, and Obama ain't an exceptionalist.
6. Obama defers to Democrats in Congress too much.
7. Obama is too arrogant.
True, some of these (admittedly contradictory) narratives play out on cable news, and in the political trade press. What Harris does not tell us whether any of the narratives ring true -- whether the perceptions are fair -- whether the press is responsible for developing them. Let's try and take each narrative on its own terms.
1. Obama and spending: Harris teases out a good political question, which is whether the president's '10 emphasis on fiscal restraint will further depress Democrats and, by virtue of the austerity transitive effect, make Americans feel more pain. Left out of this question is whether Obama is actually responsible for the spending; the complex interplay between the Fed's balance sheet and domestic purse strings; the stabilizing effect of the stimulus; an evaluation of whether people who say they're frustrated about the deficit actually care about the deficit (and aren't simply using the deficit as a proxy for ideological objections.). Still, Harris is right about the salience of this narrative for independents.