In a sensible country...

Brooks in today's NYT: "In a sensible country, people would see Obama as a president trying to define a modern brand of moderate progressivism. In a sensible country, Obama would be able to clearly define this project without fear of offending the people he needs to get legislation passed. But we don’t live in that country. We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of their own sect. They come away with perceptions fundamentally at odds with reality, fundamentally misunderstanding the man in the Oval Office."

It really is incontrovertible evidence of the Freak Show in American politics. Obama is trying to forge a new consensus and he's being portrayed as an extremist while he does so. Witness Romney criticizing the health proposal when it's the same as what he did in Massachusetts. His dad would never have been so positional.

Just goes to show that many feel any movement in their direction is an improvement, and anything that doesn't go far enough is less desirable than no movement at all. It's sad comment about the current state of things.

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