That’s maybe the single paragraph in the entire piece that has a substantive critique in it. The rest of the piece boils down to: “The president’s liberal critics are effete wusses! And being president is hard!” Haha! That Joe Queenan sure is a tough guy! If he could just go around and punch all the WSJ’s readers in the face instead of having to do something so soft and hoity-toity as writing, I’m sure that would’ve been his first choice.

OK, snark off.

I’d counter Queenan by noting that Barack Obama also got elected president in large part because an awful lot of liberal Democrats in Pennsylvania and Ohio and the border states voted for him — instead of staying home or giving Ralph Nader another chance. He didn’t get elected simply because of the blue-collar workers.

Truth is: All winning presidential politics is coalition politics. Successful politicians are good at tending both their base and the folks closer to the center, and yes: that can be a tricky balancing act. But just because it’s tricky doesn’t mean liberals should shut up. If Obama never gets any pressure from the left to do stuff we want, what incentive will he have to do those things? A politician’s feet should always be held to the fire or he’ll almost always take the safest and least-principled approach. And Barack Obama is just a politician.