Obama’s laughter at his now-famous CNBC questioner’s initial comment that she was “exhausted” of defending him caught my eye too. But I see via the Morning Jolt (arguably a more useful NRO newsletter than the G-File in a purely rationalist-instrumentalist kind of way) that someone else articulated the meaning of Obama’s guffaw perfectly already:
Obama chuckled a bit in the beginning, and readers of the Ace of Spades diagnose what was going on there: “Some commenters explained why Obama laughed at first at that racist [*] woman who said ‘I’m tired of defending you’: Obama thought at first she was making the point that exists only in Obama’s head, that is, that these attacks are all silly distractions made by unserious people (or seriously racist people who talk about him like he’s a dog). He wanted to laugh with her at how nonsensical all this criticism was. I hear ya, sister. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? But then she affirmed her own belief in the seriousness of these criticisms and he realized he wasn’t going to get what he had been used to — adulation for his lack of accomplishments. And then he grimaced.”
*This is Ace mocking the reflexive labeling of Obama critics as racist.