Are you comfortable with a president less wedded to ideology?

[Writer]

Poll question: Are you comfortable with a president less wedded to ideology?

Choose one.

[FrenchieCat]

1. I'm not only comfortable with it, I'm looking forward to watching it all enfold.

Glad, like the rest of Americans, I get front row seats! :)

[Lisa0825]

8. Me too!

I've had enough hate to last a lifetime. I want some cooperation and maybe even some unity! If anyone has the ability to shrink the gap between Americans, it's Obama.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Your poll question makes a strong statement.

Oh, you clever writer, you!

Recommended.

[bluestateguy]

3. Liberalism is rooted in pragmatism

FDR certainly belived that, as did Wilson and LBJ.

There are, however, many people representing single issue interest groups on the Left today that have no interest in pragmatism. It's all about them, their agenda and me, me, me.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Well, guess the problem they have is that we didn't vote for them.

[Radical Activist]

5. dupe

[Radical Activist]

6. empowering people means

you have to be willing to revise your plans instead of sticking rigidly to ideology. It's one of the reasons I supported Obama in the primary over a more authoritarian Democrat like Hillary.

[Zynx]

7. Ideology should never interfere with good policy.

[WinkyDink]

13. "Good policy" should be one's ideology manifest. Otherwise, what is the point of the ideology?

[Zynx]

15. There really isn't much of one. It is useful to have a belief system, but when

facts counteract it you change your beliefs, not the facts. No single ideology has a monopoly on good policy.

[WinkyDink]

16. Well, I'm thinking helping the less fortunate here, not whether the Earth is flat or round.

[Zynx]

17. Helping the less fortunate is pragmatic because it reduces social strain

and improves the economy.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. Less than what? More than what?

I am comfortable with a president less wedded to idelogy than Pol Pot.

I am uncomfortable with a president less wedded to ideology than Bill Clinton. (Used as an example becuse he was minimaly ideological and I wouldn't care for something even more "pragmatic" than Clinton.)

[TahitiNut]

10. "Greed" isn't an ideology.

:shrug:

[PurityOfEssence]

11. Standing for something is good...

It's a fairly nebulous thread-starter, but it seems to be championing Mr. Obama as someone who's not a fanatic. Sure, that's best, but if the choice is between someone who really believes in something and someone who tries to chart some kind of "safe" course, I'd actually prefer someone who stands for something.

Executives should be visionaries and leaders; legislators can come in many stripes: visionaries, agitators, peacemakers, accountants, etc.

The two most disturbing things about Mr. Obama are his habit of using religion to secure power and his deft maneuvering to avoid making enemies and to be able to sit on fences. The ongoing theory is that this is just a tactic to gain power, at which time he'll transform into a champion of everything good and true, but there's no real evidence of this. There's plenty of evidence of pragmatism or whatever else you want to call that.

Much as ideologues are an annoyance--like perfectionists--there's much to be said for a true firebrand. I have to vote ideologue.

[WinkyDink]

12. Not at all "comfortable".

[wyldwolf]

14. I've seen rule of "the base" by "the base" and "for the base" the last eight years

[Occam Bandage]

18. The responses to this poll conflict with the general response on this board

to Obama's non-ideological, pragmatic decisions.

[AtomicKitten]

19. I will judge him by his policies. n/t

[fadedrose]

20. What defines the political parties

IS their ideology. Any democrat WITHOUT an ideology that embraces universal health care, ending the war and leaving Iraq, no torture of prisoners, stabilizing social security and medicare, easier access to education, job creation, environmental protection, lifestyles, limiting big business' influence, etc. - IS NOT the kind democrat most of us voted for, imo.

I pick ideology, because these are the THINGS I voted for, not for a man who does what HE thinks is best, because even if he's right, we will feel snookered. Only time can tell.

It is laughable to say that some of us have a personal agenda - who doesn't? It's what makes people become Democrats, Republicans or Independents.