Whine All You Want: Obama Gets It Done

He's no Michael Moore—he's a pragmatist, and he keeps scoring
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2010 1:50 PM CST
Whine All You Want: Obama Gets It Done
President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., right, after signing a tax deal into law, Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 in Washington.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Frank Rich and Paul Krugman can rail all they want, fueled by their disappointment that President Obama is no “Michael Moore in chief.” These “brilliant men" are “profoundly resistant to the core rationale of the Obama presidency"—a strategy that’s working well as Obama manages consistently to “get shit done,” writes Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic.

Obama’s goal is “to move past the paradigms of the boomer years to a pragmatic, liberal reformism that takes America as it is, while trying to make it more of what it can be.” While he’s “nudged” us leftward, he doesn’t “disparage or ignore those who voted against him.” And the results are impressive: “universal health insurance, the avoidance of a Second Great Depression,” the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal. “Obama is looking good because he kept his nerve and retained his restraint.”
(More President Obama stories.)

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