Really?

I'll confess that I don't get pieces like this one (The Obama of 2012 seems like a totally different character from 2008) from Andrew Malcolm.

Has anyone seen Barack Obama recently?

You know, the optimistic hopeful fellow with the charming smile who promised so many positive things four and five years ago, how he was going to change the harsh, partisan tone of our nation's capital and bring the country together as its first African American president.

Even allowing for political hyperbole, his empty resume and the invisible witnesses from the past, Obama was such a Real Good Talker that even some who didn't vote for him still had hope that he could change some things for the better in what seemed a sadly-splintered society.

WTH did that Obama go? Have you listened recently to this Chicago Doppelganger who's replaced him? This 2012 Obama is strident and mean, even deceitful, divisive, telling half-truths after half-truths.

Did he not watch the 2008 campaign? I don't see any difference. This is the same Obama that's been on display since day 1. The only difference I see is that the pile of "strident and mean" and "divisive" has now reached critical mass with the fawning media, and some of the "harsh, partisan tone" is leaking through. But I see no qualitative difference in the man himself, or in his rhetoric, or his honesty...