The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan writes that a reelected Barack Obama is overplaying his hand, which I interpret as acting like he has a mandate. She says this as though it is unusual.
I believe nearly all reelected Presidents act this way. They interpret being reelected as having gotten a glowing performance appraisal. The alternative interpretation is that the public decided they were better than what the other party had to offer.
In 2012 Team Obama spent little time talking about how great a job he had done in term one. They did their level best to convince us that Mitt Romney was an out-of-touch plutocrat with no interest in or understanding of Mr. and Ms. Average American. It appears they succeeded.
Having not run on his record, but on the other guy's failings, President Obama has no glowing performance appraisal. All he's got is the public's judgment that he is better than Mitt, a guy his people said was no good at all.
Almost anything he does will be seen as overplaying his hand, because much of the public sees him holding a pair of fours which beat Mitt's busted flush.
