Even when presidents get in trouble, we rarely see evidence of the strain they probably feel, creating a void at the center of the dramatic narrative that the media wants to sell. That’s why journalists and pundits so often rush to fill the void with faux mind-reading and silly interpretations of presidential body language. Consider

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The selection of New York Times economics columnist David Leonhardt as the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief was widely acclaimed when it was announced last month, and rightly so — Leonhardt, a favorite of mine, was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for “his graceful penetration of America’s complicated economic questions.” But despite all the acclaim, I

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