NP - Sign Ant- Obama-GOP Tax Cut Petition

[David Morris]

Some agreement w/ you here, or at leats an assesment of Obama as a
Pragmatist, not an Idealist:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/12/seminal_moment_1.php#more?ref=fpblg

What we saw and what I think we'll see borne out by subsequent events
is Obama revealing in a very public way the choice he has made between
the two political personas he has simultaneously inhabited throughout
his candidacy and his presidency. He has tried to be both pragmatist
and progressive savior. And even when he stopped trying to be the
savior after he was elected, he was at a certain level content to let
supporters continue to project that persona on to him.

Today, he very clearly and loudly said: that savior persona is not me.
I am the pragmatist. And you know what, I don't have a whole lot of
patience for the idealists. I share their ideals, but I don't share
their approach and I'm not going to get bogged down in recriminations
over not living up to some abstract ideal.

I don't think this a change in the fundamental truth of who he is or
of what his politics are, but with today's press conference the
pretense that he might yet be someone else was finally dropped. Not
only was he announcing that this is who I am, but he was also
effectively declaring, I am not that other guy. (You can watch the key
part of the presser here.)

That's a significant change in his personal narrative and as I say a
change I suspect in the public narrative of his presidency going
forward.



On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Henry M <scuffling at gmail.com> wrote:>
> How can anyone who appreciates Pynchon not appreciate that a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get the job done, and it's often dirty and slow.