(Updated) "Obama has mourned his tattered coolness at about half a dozen recent fundraisers"

UPDATE: E. J. Dionne, Jr. covers the same territory from a different view point: "Obama and the Agony of Prudence."

Julie Mason (POLITICO):

Elayne Rapping, professor of American studies at SUNY Buffalo and an expert on popular culture, said Obama has a point about his reduction in cool. After all, he built a political career, in part, on his persona as a youthful achiever. Now he’s traded that in for the more staid role of incumbent.

“The persona that Obama likes is when everyone sees him as this very hip guy and shooting hoops and all that,” Rapping said. “Now he’s playing golf with John Boehner, which is about the most uncool thing there is.”
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