The Gary Null Blog

By Leslie Savan, The Nation
Posted on September 12, 2011, Printed on September 13, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152375/obama_finally_displays_some_guts_--_let%27s_hope_it_lasts

After Obama’s populist-sounding jobs speech, it’s understandable that a lot of us are asking, “Where has this Obama been?” He exuded verve, not wonk; he pointed fingers at the GOP (though he still insists on running against “Congress,” making Democrats seem as obstreperous as Republicans); and he hit the right angry-but-controlled tone. As Howard Fineman writes, “Friends and foes alike had to wonder watching him tonight: Where has that Barack Obama been?”

Actually, that Barack Obama has been popping up from time to time all along -- so fleetingly, though, that we keep asking the same question as if for the first time, in a sort of liberal’s version of 50 First Dates.

In July, when Obama talked tough at a press conference on the debt ceiling, website TPM headlined a post “Where Has This Obama Been?”; and a Huffington Post commenter echoed, “Where has this Obama been all this time? Love it! I'm so damn in!”