would be a pretty good sort of President to have, in my view. Just an egghead bias, I guess. My local paper ran a spiffulous editorial from Gail Collins of the New York Times that does a sweet job of identifying Barack Obama’s credentials in this respect. Here’s an approving take on it, with long, relevant excerpts, from the Daily Kos.
Collins’ point is that Obama is entirely consistent in crafting his positions and actions pragmatically on two basic principles: finding rational common ground, and avoiding stupidity. So when he ‘fails’ to go to the wall for some point of moral purity, it’s probably because doing so would be divisive, dumb, or both.
Wow. Awesome.