To the Editor:
Re “The Senate Surmounts Politics” (editorial, Dec. 23):
President Obama is a realist who gets things done: he makes his case, counts votes, makes his best deal and the country moves forward. That’s progress. He doesn’t gloat or count enemies but moves to the next task.
In contrast, others hold to principle and accomplish nothing. Purists for health care reform, for example, insisted on the best solution in 1993 and came away with nothing. Mr. Obama took the best he could get and came away with sweeping improvements to the health care system.
Ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” major financial industry reform and a critical nuclear arms treaty are just a few more examples of the accomplishments as a result of his modus operandi.
The American political landscape is littered with lost causes in which noble stalwarts led a righteous army into the realm of folk song glory and nothing much else.
Mr. Obama promised change we can believe in, the politics of the real—not the remotely possible, or the “should have been.” He has delivered on his promise. The chattering classes, from the right and left—especially the left—should amend their critique, admit that their shallow, hasty analysis was wrong and apologize to the president.
In these difficult, complex times, we are fortunate to have Mr. Obama in the White House.
John E. Colbert
Chicago, Dec. 23, 2010
Note from KBJ: The letter writer confuses change with progress. Progress is change for the better; the legislation he celebrates is change for the worse.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 