Why This Conservative Misses Bill Clinton

Jonah Goldberg is tired of having a president who can articulate his views like a lawyer but doesn't have the faintest idea how to persuade others to agree with him. "I miss having a Democrat who could sell," Goldberg writes for the New York Post. And the conservative columnist adds a confession: "I'm suffering from a mild case of Bill Clinton nostalgia."

Clinton "loved the human side of politics," Goldberg writes. "It made him a less consequential but more democratic president." By contrast, "Obama's 'People of Earth, Stop Your Bickering' aloofness often makes him seem exasperated with the country he leads." He "confuses explanation for persuasion, as if simply telling us that because he thinks X, then X must be the way to go. Nearly all of his explanations assume that disagreement with him must stem from ignorance or villainy."