Krauthammer is irked that Obama's "Olympian above-the-fray no-politics-here pose is succeeding."

Well, yes:

A pliant press swallows the White House story line: the great compromiser (“clearly exasperated,” sympathized a Post news story) being stymied by Republican “intransigence” (the noun actually used in another front-page Post news story to describe the Republican position on taxes).

It's one of the cards in his hand as he dares you to call his bluff.