Three Takes on How He's Doing

More than ever, Barack Obama looks the Democratic front-runner—and pundits are focusing on chinks in his armor:

• After much difficulty working policy into his “soaring oratory,” the New Republic's Jonathan Cohn writes, Obama recently found the right balance—but now “he may be getting a little too wonky.” He’s likely packing in the positions to deflect charges he lacks substance, but Cohn felt himself nodding off last night during Obama's speech.

• That idealistic Obama on your screen “doesn’t exist,” asserts National Review’s Jim Geraghty: The “Yes We Can”-er is a product of Hollywood dreams and Kennedy myths. Dems are expert at building up “the next JFK,” but there’s “always a man behind the curtain.”
• A MyDD blogger is none too happy about last night’s “dog whistle right-wing talking points” aimed at Texas voters. He wants to know why talk about “the free market...entrepreneurship” and even government getting out of the way doesn’t bother lefties as much as Hillary Clinton’s sometimes hawkish foreign policy.

(More Barack Obama stories.)