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03 Oct 2008 12:21 pm
Yglesias Award Nominee
"Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously said of Franklin Roosevelt that he had a "second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament." Obama has shown that he is a man of limited experience, questionable convictions, deeply troubling associations (Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko) and an alarming lack of self-definition -- do you really know who he is and what he believes? Nonetheless, he's got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president," - Charles Krauthammer today.
I should just add that I have a pretty good idea of what Obama believes and who he is. Very few candidates in American history have been as candid about both as Obama. I don't agree with all of it, but I see the sense of much of it.
Even I see the pragmatism of raising taxes on the successful to
Clinton era levels just to keep the government minimally solvent. And
if you don't see the urgency for change from the insane Republicanism
of the last eight years, then I'm at a loss to know what to say. In the
end, it's that simple. You cannot know for sure with any future
president, but in these times, the first class temperament and first
class intellect and astonishing oratory and obvious decency are enough
for me.
My judgment now is what it was sixteen months ago, and a year ago. We need Obama now. And we are immensely lucky to have him.
(Photo: Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty.)
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