Grouchy Old Crank

Charles Krauthammer supplies enough spite for the entire Washington Post Op-Ed page this morning:

Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.

There are plenty of assertions here to disagree with (especially the claim about legislative achievements), but the overall tone of this piece is so grouchy that I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously as a political argument. Especially with a statement like this:

After all, in the words of his own slogan, "we are the ones we've been waiting for," which, translating the royal "we," means: " I am the one we've been waiting for."

It's a nice trick - invoking the royal "we" to dodge the silver bullet which strikes the heart of the argument. Obama has always said that change must come from the bottom up. He says again and again in his speeches that the movement is not about him, but about the millions of supporters who have joined his campaign. And the phrase "we are the ones we've been waiting for" is a perfect expression of that sentiment. But none of this matters if you're a crabby columnist who intentionally misreads statements in order to advance a theory with gaping logical holes.

I propose an effort to improve Krauthammer's mood. This sort of grumpiness is awfully unbecoming.