Restoration and renewal: The self-restraint of the Obama presidency

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Andrew Sullivan has an excellent post up on one of the key differences, perhaps the overarching one, between Obama, whom he dubs "The Presider," and Bush, who dubbed himself "The Decider":

If Bush was about the presidency as power, Obama is about the presidency as authority. It's fascinating to watch this deep difference in understanding slowly but unmistakably realize itself in public actions. Somewhere the Founders are smiling. The system is correcting itself after one of the most unbalanced periods in American history. But it took the self-restraint of one man to do it.

Make sure to read the whole thing.