A great comment in response to too-liberal-for-my-taste Frank Rich's column:
I am one of those who always saw Obama largely as he said he was. I knew who I was voting for. I expected a very intellectual, pragmatic, temperate man. I expected him to do some policy in the middle and some to the left. He was known to not be about ideology when he was my senator.
He always seemed to combine the idealism with the hard reality. The inspirational with the pragmatic.
And, I have not found myself disappointed by him because he's operated the same as I expected him to.
the one thing I did feel was that he would not abandon health care like so many others did.
In our society today we mistake loud, crude and bullying and bragging as strong. We think quiet, reflective and thoughtful as weak. We see a guy who preens and brags and throws out the empty, simple tough guy rhetoric as strong.
The chest beater and fist pounder.
But, the quiet ones are just as resolute and strong - if not stronger. The guy who did the hard stuff like save the banks on Wall Street to prevent collapse, the guy who decided we had to do a little drilling to bridge us over until we are energy independent and green, the guy who walked into the lions den that day to mix it up with republicans and signal health care was not dead were all hard things.
tough things.
Like Gary Cooper, Obama is strong but quiet about it.
He will never let his opposition know what he will do and what he thinks.
