The best and the brightest?

or, Where have you gone, Peggy Noonan... ?

Lose the young speechwriter, Mr. Obama. Too much telling, not enough showing.

I'm sure Jon Favreau helped win the presidency -- he captured that youth voice needed to beat Hillary's experience. The "Hello tomorrow!" attitude that attracted the young people, and their wanna-be-with-it Boomer parents.

Trouble is, that youth voice is struggling mightily now. The inspiration is gone. Referencing the tanks, the moon shot ... it sounded like somebody flipping through wikipedia for inspiring moments.

Telling us "Hey, I have principles too" sounds too much like a direct response to criticism that this prez is just a schoolboy mouthing the words, with no idea at all how to lead, other than to assign others work and stand above them cracking a whip...

I think Mr. Favreau has run his course in the inspiration department: a smart young man, but essentially, a safely suburban-raised one, born 6/2/81. Now I'm not an ageist, but let's put this young man -- essentially the president's mouthpiece (or is that Gibbs?) -- in perspective: not the son of immigrants; no family economic struggle; a Catholic education and civil upbringing during the safe, late 20th century American heydays -- not that there's anything wrong with that...

It's just something's missing.

The magic that charmed in the campaign -- the boobie coddling of the political establishment, represented by Hillary; the understanding of Ronald Reagan only from a second-hand perspective, which we saw in all that "I got religion!" wrap-up last night -- it's not in the moment.

The moment -- is a somber one. It's working people out of jobs. It's educations not worth much without connections as far as making a dollar or two. It's the people being punished at the pumps for the failures of the well-paid managers and leadership class.

It's the corporations running the country.

Unless Mr. Favreau picks up a quick degree in fiction or creative writing, I think the president ought to look elsewhere for his next inspirational speech. I suspect we'll be hearing another -- perhaps with more longer-term foreign policy consequences -- before his term is up.

It'd be nice maybe if we could even fool ourselves into thinking it was the president's voice himself we were hearing -- his words put to paper, and then delivered to the nation. Because surely I'm not the only one voting no confidence in the beer-pong-playing boy who helped win in November, but falls short as the seasons progress...

Voice of maturity-- next time, go for that. Who knows? Maybe the president could even bring forth that voice from within himself, based on his own life experiences. Sure beats what a 29-year-old speechwriter has to offer in the way of inspiration, I suspect.