That’s what Jonathan Cohn wants to know. Here’s a clue: he is always “calm” (except when attacking his long list of “enemies”) — that is, he is always projecting an eerie detachment that his supporters have mistaken for thoughtfulness. He was so calm during his Christmas vacation that he didn’t comment on the Christmas Day bomber for days. He was so calm after the Fort Hood massacre that he bizarrely went on with his prepared patter at the Interior Department.

But Cohn writes something quite odd: “One constant in Obama’s record is his assumption that American people will act like political grown-ups–that, when presented with a choice between a party that takes governing seriously and one that does not, they will choose the former.” Umm, actually not remotely accurate. Obama has spent weeks now telling us that we are scared, illogical, and acting with our lizard brains. He doesn’t treat us like adults but rather as recalcitrant children who are being bamboozled by mysterious foreign-funded ads and the likes of Glenn Beck.

Cohn is right, albeit for reasons I think are incorrect, to be a tad worried. After all, the calmest man in the room is presiding over unemployment approaching 10 percent and an electoral debacle for his party. Calm is overrated.