By Mike Pound

Globe columnist

mpound@joplinglobe.com

Well, it hasn’t even been two weeks yet but the attack dogs have already been set lose.

I knew it was coming but I was surprised it happened so quickly. Most new presidents are given a few weeks, at least, before folks start harping on him, before they start criticizing and second guessing. But not this time. This time the honeymoon for Barack Obama ended almost before it actually begun. Already, in a story in The New York Times (Motto: Go ahead. Do our crossword puzzle in ink. We dare you.), Obama’s choices have been labeled “a bit of a disappointment.”

Can you believe that? A bit of a disappointment. And he hasn’t even taken office yet. I think that’s a bit harsh. A bit unfair. But that’s the way things go in this 24-hour news cycle that we live in now. I guess I understand that, but still, I was disappointed. I mean, the guy is new ... Shouldn’t he be given a chance to learn on the job? A chance to grow into his position? I think so. But apparently The New York Times doesn’t agree. The New York Times thinks that President-elect Obama should already know how to dress causally.

What?

Oh, you thought I was talking about his presidential policies. Please. Who cares about that stuff?

Nope, according to at least one reporter for The New York Times, what’s important right now is what President-elect Obama wears when he’s not doing president stuff. According the reporter, Obama has been seen wearing “a baseball cap with a North Face warm-up jacket, jeans and white sneakers, and a black windbreaker that some observers assumed was leather, but, more likely, was nothing fancier than cotton.”

When I read that a couple of thoughts occurred to me.

Thought No. 1: What the heck is a North Face warm-up jacket?

And, thought No. B: Observers? Really? There are observers who watch presidential windbreakers?

Wow.

What’s even more fascinating to me is that the windbreaker observers apparently want to remain anonymous. Sort of like “well placed White House sources” or “key officials” or “sources close to the President.”