Why is Obama harder on his friends than on his enemies?

Writing in The Washington Post today, Richard Cohen has a thought about Team Obama’s attempt to toss the inept New York Governor David Paterson out of the 2010 campaign. “The Defenestration of New York tells you nothing you did not know about Paterson. But it does tell you something about Obama and a toughness lurking behind that blazing smile. Call the purging of Paterson post-racial politics or just plain politics, but in either case the lesson is clear: When you become a problem for Obama, don’t get too close to a window.”

We have seen this trick from Obama before. The most famous case was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s longtime pastor and spiritual shepherd who became an embarrassment last spring and was repudiated. Wright was a spectacular distraction, but candidate Obama has acted with equal swiftness to isolate those agents who might infect him with their problems. A few months after the Wright matter, nominee Obama bid a remoreseless goodbye to the head of his vice-presidential search team, former Fannie Mae Chairman James Johnson, after reports that he may have received preferential mortgage terms from Countrywide Financial. In February, President Obama allowed Tom Daschle, an early and loyal backer who had been chosen to head the Department of Health and Human Services because nobody was better qualified to reform America’s health care system, to step aside after his tax problems were revealed; Obama, you’ll recall, had used his “Get a Tax-Cheating Nominee Out of Jail Free” card on Timothy Geithner, and didn’t want to take on another fight. Just last month, Obama allowed Van Jones, his selection to become a special adviser on green jobs, to step down after Jones had come under attack for some dumb and insulting remarks he had made about Republicans that had nothing to do with green jobs.

All these ruthless moves make perfect sense, although it’s worth noting that some administrations in the past have fought tooth and nail for their compromised nominees, just to prove to their critics that once the president had made a selection, it didn’t matter if it was Vlad the Impaler, they had better shut up and play along. But here’s the question:

Why is President Obama harder on his friends than on his enemies? Why does he keep extending his hand to the Republicans in a spirit of cooperation, and allow himself to be ignored? Why has the president found it so difficult to come down hard on the financial fat cats who manipulated the economy into a recession?

Machiavelli said it was better to be loved than feared, but since it was hard to be loved, a prince should make himself feared. Well, here’s the thing: Obama’s enemies neither love him nor fear him. And his friends? They better watch their asses.