"That guy on the stage, that's the real Obama"

Noonan on Obama. Fascinating. Especially her references to Bob Woodward's book.

Mr. Woodward's portrait of the president is not precisely new—it has been drawn in other ways in other accounts, and has been a staple of D.C. gossip for three years now—but it is vivid and believable. And there's probably a direct line between that portrait and the Obama seen in the first debate. Maybe that's what made it so indelible, and such an arc-changer. People saw for the first time an Obama they may have heard about on radio or in a newspaper but had never seen. They didn't see some odd version of the president. They saw the president. And they didn't like what they saw, and that would linger.

"When Americans Saw the Real Obama," by Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2012)