Yuval – I was going to make an easy joke about how the reason it feels like he’s been president longer is that the press declared him the winner long before election day.

But I actually think there might be a larger point to make. One of Obama’s shrewd tactics — intended in no small part to make him seem like a plausible president — was to act as if he was already a president. The Berlin speech, the faux presidential seal, etc. all seemed to convey a presidential aura to the man. I think that was smart politics. Every candidate wants to seem presidential, few pull it off so well. But, I wonder if his “office of the President-Elect” routine might have been overreach, or at least had a more significant downside than they anticipated.. Remember all that chatter about how we have “two presidents” over the last couple months? Congressional Democrats certainly deferred to Obama as if he was already president, long before he took the oath. Well, in a sense the chatter was right, and certainly the perception was real. Now, that he’s actually president there’s somewhat less newness to his presidency than their otherwise might be if he had kept his powder dry. It feels like he’s been president for a lot longer than a month because in a lot of ways he was the de facto president before he became the de jure one.

I don’t think as a political or substantive matter he would have been well-served to act differently. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t something of a cost to his aspiration for a 100 day honeymoon.

Or, maybe not.