The Obama Campaign Is Over: Get Used to It

Many Democrats are complaining that the passion of the Obama campaign is missing from the White House but they should realize that upbeat rallies aren't what it takes to run a country, writes David Brooks. It requires endless amounts of prodding and compromise to get anything done in Washington and President Obama has adapted to the task remarkably deftly, Brooks writes in the New York Times.

Obama's White House revolves around debate and complex balancing of different points of view, Brooks writes, a style evident in the president's Afghanistan speech. "We should still be glad that he is governing the way he is," Brooks writes. "Amid problems like Afghanistan and health care, it simply wouldn’t do to give gauzy speeches about the meaning of the word hope."