The Importance of Being Earnest: That Obama Photo Fronting Saturday's NYT

You have to love this photo leading the NYT yesterday, not just the interplay between GOP ring leader McConnell and the Prez but two hatchets from his own side (having retreated from blue to purple). Of course, the accompanying article is all about Obama and his party hanging tough with the Republicans after last Tuesday’s midterm shellacking — after he left the barn door wide open and all the cows got out.

If the more mobilized midterm voters looked at the President askance, it’s still not over. Painfully, the photo contrasts the President with those who live in the everyday political world — cesspool though it may be. Mindful of the famous play, we see the President on a different plane, a somehow higher and more consensual one, talking to no one we can see.

(photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times caption: President Obama met on Friday with Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Charles E. Schumer and others.)