Reply #34: Obama also spoke out against the Iraq invasion when it was not popular to do so.

[quiet.american]

I'm not sure when "common sense" became an undesirable character trait - nor the ability to listen carefully, give-and-take, be practical, weigh consequences, etc.

The problem I have with those who blanche at the word "pragmatism" is that it makes zero sense to me that the only way you can prove you're a true liberal to a certain voting block is to vote "no" with the Republicans on every major Democratic initiative.

Somehow now, if you vote "no" with the GOP because "the bill doesn't go far enough" -- even though you yourself have never achieved the Holy Grail of crafting a bill that "went far enough" (see: Howard Dean and Russ Feingold, both of whom I was a strong supporter of in earlier days, but now consider them to be on the borderline of becoming cariacatures of themselves); somehow, voting "no" with Republicans makes one a true-blue liberal - more so than one's Democratic colleagues who worked long days and long nights to get a majority of progressive items into whatever legislation is on the table.

Bizarre.

Edited for my usual typos