Hope, frustrated

This lede brought a long-percolating bit of pattern recognition to the forebrain:

U.S. President Barack Obama sought to ratchet up pressure on China over its currency and trade policies, warning Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday that Americans were growing "impatient and frustrated" over economic relations.

This was, shall we say, not the first time Obama invoked or betrayed frustration -- his own, or Americans'.  There's Netanyahu (Nov. 8):

There's no doubt that Obama is frustrated and angry in the extreme with what he perceives to be Netanyahu's recalcitrance when it comes to Arab-Israeli peacemaking (Nov. 11).

Economic stagnation:

While protesters and police battled on the streets of Oakland, in the pre-recorded interview Leno asked Obama for his views of what was behind the Occupy Wall Street movement:

Look, people are frustrated. And that frustration expresses itself in a lot of different ways. It expressed itself in the tea party, it's expressing itself in Occupy Wall Street... Everybody needs to understand that the American people feel that no-one is looking out for them right now.

Recalcitrant Republicans: (Aug. 31):

"Frustrated."

That was the subject line of an e-mail sent to millions of supporters late Wednesday night from President Obama's re-election campaign. It expressed his frustration with Congress' unwillingness to deal in bipartisan fashion with the country's economic problems.

While the message was aimed at Congress as Obama prepares to deliver next Thursday's speech on jobs, it just as easily could have summarized his plight during the past four months — perhaps the most frustrating of his presidency.

Since his triumphant announcement on May 1 that Osama bin Laden was dead, the president has been blocked by Republicans at almost every turn, from cutting deficits to scheduling speeches.

Recalcitrant Republicans (Aug. 12):

Declaring himself frustrated with political fighting in Congress, President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed some of the nation's continuing economic troubles on government inaction and urged Americans to tell their elected representatives in Washington to pass bills that will create jobs....

Last week's first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's "could have been entirely avoided if there had been a willingness to compromise in Congress," the president said, adding: "It didn't happen because we didn't have the capacity to pay our bills. It happened because Washington doesn't have the capacity to come together and get things done."

"You hear it my voice. I'm frustrated," Obama said, referring to what he called the "worst kind of partisanship" and the "worst kind of gridlock" in Congress.

And... recalcitrant Republicans (July 25):

The president devoted his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to the [debt] impasse and urged Republicans to make a deal. Clearly frustrated by the lack of progress, Mr Obama said: 'I've been left at the altar now a couple of times.'

There are worse things than being frustrated. The President could be frightened, filleted, foreclosed upon, defeated, fucked. He could be pained, panicked, punished, pilloried or purged.  He could be disengaged, demoralized, depressed, debased or depraved.

But it's hard to run on frustration, shared or otherwise.