Letters to the Editor
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yup, he's the real deal
And you're right that even his supporters are going to be disappointed with him when he doesn't toe some party line on something, and he's already been accused of being "too centrist" or "selling out". They aren't seeing the big picture of what he is trying to do. My Republican sister got it right away when she started listening to the Audacity of Hope cd's I gave her. She wrote:
I think one of the challenges for him is that most people's thinking is oriented around details and specifics, whereas his main thrust strikes me as being oriented on Process - how to go about achieving good results, not specifying details about the results. Most people don't easily grasp the value and importance of building a process that works and trusting that if the process is good, it will deliver good results - they are too busy arguing about what the results should look like. The next few months should be very enlightening and interesting.
Furthermore, I expect him to bring in advisors and make appointments that are going to be very, very eclectic although not severely ideological. Pragmatism is the name of the game here.
It isn't the calculating pragmatism of immediate political opportunism however, it is a pragmatism grounded in a better and more informed vision of where this country needs to go.
I think it goes back to his grasp of history. This is someone who has studied history in a great deal of depth--someone who deeply understands the lessons world history teaches us.