So much for being “sort of God.” In this week’s press conference, Barack Obama blamed eeeeeeeeeeevil corporate jet owners and oil companies for the federal budget deficit in an attempt to play class-warfare games to fire up the base. Former High Priest of ObamaMania Evan Thomas (who also sidelines as a Newsweek editor) became an apostate by noting that demagoguery wastes time and makes it harder to find solutions. Thomas “applaud[s] the energy,” but wonders when Obama will start presidenting instead of being a party hack:

On “Inside Washington,” host Gordon Peterson asked his panel to suggest a way to overcome the current impasse and get Congress and the White House moving on a budget deal. Thomas offered up a solution, but also expressed his frustration with Obama.

“Yeah, because it’s happened before – Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is this, because he is not doing that. He’s not being honest about just how bad this is going to be — no, he was partisan. He was God [bleep] Democrat! He was just, you know – being a party guy. I applaud the energy but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. He has got to rise above that and then in private, in private – he’s got to make a deal.”

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer’s sentiments fell in line with Thomas’s.

“Instead of saying, as a president ought to say, is that we have a problem — it is a serious problem, it’s a growing problem, it’s a structural problem and we have to do something, he says, as in the sound bite you showed, it is a choice between helping the elderly on Medicare and corporate jets and oil tax breaks,” Krauthammer added. “That is pure demagoguery and that is not leadership.”

When acolytes start tossing criticisms instead of hosannas, I’d say we have consensus. Barack Obama … uniter?

wait