A rare politician. Honest & decent.

Maybe Barack Obama is too nice. And as the legendary baseball manager Leo Durocher said, 'Nice guys finish last.' One can take advantage of nice people. Especially nice politicians. Obama tries not to jam his policies down his adversaries throats. He tries to be fair and decent. To make concessions. To listen to all sides. To sometimes settle for the middle ground. Meeting people half-way. I haven't decided whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Obama is inherently a liberal. But he wants to be respectful of conservatives. Despite the fact that many, many conservatives are disrespectful of liberals. They are Limbaughish. Big fat idiots. Obama could choose to be highly partisan. He has a majority in both houses of Congress. Maybe even a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Hey, if the Republicans had such a majority, they'd be vicious. They would take no prisoners. They'd ram their gawd-awful conservative agenda down our gullets with a plunger. Like stuffed geese. But Obama is too much of a gentleman, too good-natured to treat opponents as despicable enemies. He looks for the common ground. He may rue the day he passed on the opportunity to push a liberal agenda with full force. But I gotta admit. I like the guy. He's a rare politician. Honest and decent. --Jim Broede