Why the president looks so exhausted

Barack Obama looks exhausted these days. He looks about as tired, in other words, as the nation feels.

He knows this. At a speech Saturday, he said that people are always telling him to “hang in there.”

“Don’t worry about me!” Obama said. “I am still fired up ... because I still see the work that needs to be done!”

The audience cheered and applauded his old slogan from 2008 — “Fired up! Ready to go!” — the old fire in the belly, the old Obama.

But by Sunday, he seemed drained again. Speaking at a memorial to those slain in the Navy Yard shooting, he pointed out it was the fifth time in his pre...