President Obama, male model

Andrew Sullivan makes his latest case for the Obama Administration:

There is a strange quality to Barack Obama’s pragmatism. It can look like dilly-dallying, weakness, indecisiveness. But although he may seem weak at times, one of the words most applicable to him is something else entirely: ruthless. Beneath the crisp suit and easy smile there is a core of strategic steel. In this respect, Obama’s domestic strategy is rather like his foreign one — not so much weakness but the occasional appearance of weakness as a kind of strategy.

The pattern is now almost trademarked. He carefully lays out the structural message he is trying to convey. At home, it is: we all have to fix the mess left by Bush-Cheney. Abroad, it is: we all have to fix the mess left by Bush-Cheney. And then ... not much.

Essentially, Sullivan is making the case for Barack Obama as President Zoolander. When anybody tries to take advantage of his perceived wimpiness, President Zoolander will use his trademarked "Blue Steel" pose to awe them into submission. The problem with this analysis is that the only people in the world who seem to be fooled by the Obama mystique are Obama's domestic supporters.