Obama just keeps stepping forward [View all]

[frogmarch]

A lifelong friend of mine who now lives in England (she has dual citizenship) sent me an email she received from an English friend of hers who is touring America. Here’s a portion of it:

There is news from here -- but you know it already. The bill passed, Obama won. It may be a Pyrrhic victory yet, but it may also be a turning point. He always seems very Unitarian to me -- and he is from something close to our tradition -- eminently reasonable, mild, eloquent, rational, in the face of intransigence. We step on, he seems to say, one step forward and three-quarters of a step back, but that one-quarter of a step is at least forward. The cost is huge, and I have no idea what whatever passes for the public in a country of 350 million people, thinks. No one knows, the divisions are so very large. America steps forward, inch by inch. As I write, a historic day approaches that is so historic we must just step over it quietly: The 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. We step over it quietly because this country is always on the verge. Always on crisis watch. And Obama just keeps stepping forward in his reasonable suit, treating everyone reasonably.

It was interesting to read her take on Obama, and on us as a country.