Stop Being So Wimpy, Mr. President

President Obama may be the world's most powerful man, but he "too often plays the 98-pound weakling," writes Dana Milbank. George Bush pushed through his agenda not with tact but through sheer political initimidation, and even Britain's Gordon Brown has been accused of throwing a Blackberry or two. Obama doesn't need to start "kicking the furniture," but "it wouldn't hurt for the occupant of the bully pulpit to show some force of will," Milbank writes in the Washington Post.

"He gets sand kicked in his face and responds with moot-court zingers," complains Milbank. "That's what Mr. Cool did at the White House health-care summit on Thursday. For seven hours, he racked up debating points as he parried Republican attacks without so much as raising his voice, but the performance didn't exactly intimidate his foes." (More President Obama stories.)