That tin ear

摘要

Now it is official: Barack Obama does not do contrition well. The usual form after your party has had an electoral thrashing is to appear on television looking ashen and justly chastised, promising to heed the message of the voters and reform your ways. That is what Bill Clinton did with superb theatricality after suffering his own mid-term setback in 1994. Mr Obama's manner in this week's day-after White House press conference was one of sombre defiance, in which he appeared graciously to forgive voters for their natural impatience at the pace of economic recovery.