A Former Collegue's Take on Obama

A "visionary minimalist." The article is in quite the college-essay style, but worth a read. In the end, he seems to be saying that Obama is quintessentially American: a pragmatic idealist. The lone philosophical school attributed to the US is the pragmatic school and--comparative to other schools--it is rather boring, truthfully. But, when it comes to government, I would rather have ideas inspired by John Dewey than Friedrich Nietzsche.

In the end, I think what makes Obama attractive to so many (or at least to me), is that he can clearly see much better times ahead but remains grounded. He doesn't resort to the romantic, and sometimes even childish, mysticism of Reagan. His specific policy papers are quite boring and pedantic sometimes. But he doesn't limit government success as a series of plans the way Hillarah does, and he doesn't define political success as victory over one's enemies the way Edwards and Giuliani do.

He sees Iraq, quite rightly, as a diversion away from the terror threat. He doesn't view it as an ignoble endeavor, just an unintelligent and un-pragmatic one. And with Al Quaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood stretching from Morocco to the Philippines--and every country in between--it does make one wonder just how much safer we would be even if everything went smoothly in Iraq. And even that assumes there is an Iraq, or Iraqis, left to "win" against. McCain seems to reduce Iraq as a test of America's will to fight and still thinks Vietnam is a war we not only should have won but, apparently, one that we should have fought. When Obama says he is not against all wars, just dumb wars, he is already past McCain in maturity.

As for Obama vs. Romney or Huckabee...too easy of an argument. In short, what candidate is really better than Obama, I suppose, would be the question. To my eyes, I don't see one.