Obama: Wilting Under the Heat?

For Obama, a president who cares too much about what is written and said about him, the last month and a half must have been hellish. Despite his "cool" image, I don't think our president is taking the pressure well.

Despite his "cool" image, I don't think our president is taking the pressure of the last six weeks very well. In their book em>The Battle for America 2008<, Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson revealed a memo from David Axelrod to Obama warning him that his thin skin and sensitivity to criticism were major weak spots.

"You care far too much what is written and said about you. You don't relish combat when it becomes personal and nasty. When the largely irrelevant Alan Keyes attacked you, you flinched," Axelrod wrote in a memo.

For somebody who cares too much about what is written and said about him, the last month and a half must have been hellish. Add sinking poll numbers and the fact that the tried and true tactics of the past - speeches, town hall meetings, campaign-style events - just aren't working the way they used to work, and you have the makings of a psychic perfect storm.

Notice we haven't heard anything about Obama quitting smoking lately?