When Salon writers have lost patience with you. Joan Walsh writes:
Grow up, Mr. President.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole idea of transcendence that comes up throughout Bai’s piece. I have no idea what it means. Contrast the word with the language, and power, behind the civil rights hymn “We Shall Overcome.” It’s different from “We Shall Transcend.” To “overcome” implied patience and perseverance, but also hard work. Transcendence is more passive, it’s got religious connotations, I don’t know how you “do” it, you might simply have to “be” it. Obama, apparently, is “transcendent.” But I don’t know if he will help us overcome.
And that’s from a believer in his transformational left-wing ideology!