'We are beginning to learn that the Obama presidency will be an era of substantial but deferred accomplishments -- perhaps always to be accompanied by a sense of continuing crisis. His vaunted "cool" allows him to wait without impatience and to endure without visible despair. It asks the same of his constituents. . .
It is likely that if and when Congress responds to other challenges Obama has given it -- to restructure financial regulation; to rationalize energy, education and environmental policies; and to slow the ruinous growth of entitlement programs -- the pattern will be the same: incremental steps leading to possible future breakthroughs.
For a nation whose culture has produced a psychology demanding instant gratification, this politics of deferred satisfaction is something not easily learned. . .
Somewhere, he has learned the virtues of patience when it comes to governing.
I think it is welcome to have a president whose vision extends beyond the duration of his own term of office, though it entails a political risk that he could be cut off by the voters before any of his hopes are realized. If the current high level of public frustration fuels a Republican resurgence well beyond the normal midterm losses for a president's party, it is possible that next year might bring a serious effort to repeal the health-care act and reject his initiatives in international affairs.
I do not think this is likely. But a president who is not driven by a compulsion to provide instant gratification for his constituents must also cultivate adult patience in them. My bet would be that Obama has that capacity.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/14/AR2010041402991.html?hpid=opinionsbox1-----------------------------------------------
This is BRODER! He's got his MIND BACK! SO pleased to see this!
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