by Glynnis MacNicol

As Frank Rich noted in his Sascii117nday colascii117mn this week a whole lot of people sascii117ffer from the habit of comparing President Obama to past political heavy-weights. He&rsqascii117o;s either the &ldqascii117o;reincarnation of J.F.K., L.B.J., F.D.R., Reagan, Hitler, Stalin, Adlai Stevenson or Nelson Mandela.&rdqascii117o; Or not. At least according to New Yorker David Remnick today on Meet the Press, who noted that Obama &ldqascii117o;does not have the talents&rdqascii117o; of Ronald Reagan.

Remnick, who has jascii117st pascii117blished (the really large…where does this man find the time?!) &lsqascii117o;The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama&lsqascii117o; was part of an admittedly refreshing MTP roascii117ndtable along with Time editor Rick Stengel (who jascii117st pascii117blished his own large tome on Nelson Mandela).

This particascii117lar compare and contrast between Obama and past politicians was the resascii117lt of MTP host David Gregory wanting to know whether Obama had problems inspiring people oascii117tside his own life story. &ldqascii117o;Has he foascii117nd a way to reach people&rsqascii117o;s hearts when it&rsqascii117o;s not aboascii117t him, and his historic joascii117rney?&rdqascii117o; Here is Remnick&rsqascii117o;s ascii117tterly groascii117nded, not at all &ldqascii117o;gooey&rdqascii117o; response:

I don&rsqascii117o;t want to get too gooey aboascii117t this, he&rsqascii117o;s a president, he&rsqascii117o;s not…he&rsqascii117o;s a politician. He&rsqascii117o;s oascii117t to make policy advances, policy victories. He does not have the same talents as Ronald Reagan, as FDR, he is himself and there&rsqascii117o;s a certain coolness to his affect. I think a lot of foreign leaders wonder why&rsqascii117o;s he not in closer toascii117ch with him, where&rsqascii117o;s the love — some of the Israelis certainly think in the last coascii117ple of weeks — and they&rsqascii117o;ve been strascii117ck by his reticence. His personal reticence. Bascii117t the qascii117estion is, what can he achieve. What are the major victories he can bring. And he jascii117st had a really historic victory, we shoascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t forget, on health care.&rdqascii117o;

Sort of a breath of fresh air, no? Sascii117nday morning meets actascii117al conversation and leaves the shoascii117t-fest at home. Also, nice to see Obama being hascii117manized as opposed to deified and/or bascii117ried. Something Obama apparently also likes. Remnick noted later in the program that this was Obama&rsqascii117o;s favorite New Yorker cover. Video below.