Doing his best Kevin Bacon impression while the Middle East burned wasn’t enough to earn President Barack Obama the Washington Post’s “Worst Week in Washington Award.” But doing his best impression of an empty chair at Wednesday night’s debate was. The Post’s ostensibly unbiased reporter who gives the award each week (usually to a Republican) had another analysis piece up on the Web Sunday morning.

I’m unimpressed by any analysis that includes this when describing Barack Obama:

Second, Obama is, at heart, a political pragmatist who relies much more on analysis and caution than gut instinct.

Pragmatist? Nope. Not in the least. A pragmatist would’ve hedged against the possibility that he, like just about every post-WWII president before him (except Bush 43), might face a substantial loss of seats in Congress in his first midterm election and found some way to make his stimulus, health care insurance reform and everything else just a little bipartisan. He wouldn’t have gotten everything he wanted, but what he got would’ve been more popular and had more staying power than Obamacare is shaping up to have.