Reply #5: Great letter from your OFA person

[Inuca]

and I agree wholeheartedly with what s/he is saying. It's about "sanity in the government" indeed. I may not like everything that Obama is doing, and I don't, though I continue to trust his fundamental good will. But I just watched some minutes (all I could muster before switching channels) of the speech that Palin have in NH and then, an hour or so later, the speech Obama gave in Detroit. And for me that tells everything I need to know and hear. Yes, I know, it's just words, and words matter less than acts. But words DO matter as well. Palin and her ilk appeal to lowest common denominator, and attempt to drive it even lower. It's an appeal to pettiness and selfishness and empty minded know-nothingness. Obama appeals to our better angels, attempts to pull s away from self pity and self-suffciency and pushes us to look at those around us, as part of a whole. I think that he actually believes that people will eventually listen to their "better angels", for lack of a better term. And that this is at the root of his (in)famous appeal to bipartisanship. This, and the fact that he believes that tose that do not necessarily believe like you, and not automatically your enemies. OTOH I think that he was burned quite badly because the people on the otehr side that he dealt with did not react in the way he was expecting/hoping they will. Maybe (hopefully) he will change. Maybe he won't, I don't know... Maybe he will try to change his approach and won't succeed because it is difficult to act in a way that is different from what you fundamentally are. I am very frustrated (even scared) by what's happening, and by some of the decisions that the administration has taken, willingly or because of shameless blackmail, but after some recent soul searching, I don't think I am disappointed in Obama.

This being said, apologies for going off topic somewhat. And Mass, I understand, I truly do, but I add my voice to those hope it's only going to be a temporary absence.