POLITICO.COM : Karen Finney, Democratic strategist Clinton administration, said Obama is letting supporters know he understands their frustration. - “Now we are in the middle of slogging through the work — which is less glamorous but just as, if not more, important.”

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POLITICO.COM
Barack Obama laments his lost 'cool'
By JULIE MASON
June 26, 2011


Barack Obama laments his lost 'cool'


Some excerpts :

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.

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Obama is quick to reassure supporters that even if his novelty has faded, his determination to finish the job he started remains strong.

“The vision hasn’t changed,” he said in New York, imploring the crowd to “work just as hard as we did in 2008.”

Saying there is much more to accomplish, Obama added, “Don’t sit back and wait for me, I need you … because we are going to need the same energy and same passion and the same engagement” as in 2008.

Some supporters admit to a bit of an enthusiasm gap now that Obama is campaigning as an incumbent.

“This time it’s not as trendy, and you are not going to see the same attitude at all,” said Andy Freedman, 24, a 2008 Obama volunteer from Maryland.

Freedman, who said he is less likely to work on the campaign for 2012 but “may make some phone calls,” said the slogans and posters of 2008 helped create the impression of “an insurgency.”

“He has done a good job, but I think a lot of people have just lost interest since he became president,” Freedman said.

Andreas Koudellou, 24, also supported Obama in 2008. Since then, Koudellou, a New Yorker, said he has become disenchanted with Obama — but not because the president has lost his cool quotient.

“His rhetoric and the appeal that came with it four years ago excited me in that the country would take a new turn, but more importantly, do it in a new way,” Koudellou said. “He has done some good things, like health care, but I don’t see him as holding true to the values he lauded before.”

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