Thursday, April 03, 2008
Joe Klein on Obama [Ramesh Ponnuru]
His latest column is here. Three comments:
1) "Patriotism is, sadly, a crucial challenge for Obama now. His aides believe that the Wright controversy was more about anti-Americanism than it was about race." That's what I thought, too. Sometimes it seemed to me as though I was the only one who did. Glad to hear I'm not.
2) "[T]he liberal message of national improvement is profoundly more optimistic, and patriotic, than the innate conservative pessimism about the perfectibility of human nature." I assume that Klein will react calmly should conservatives wish to make the opposite argument, that conservatism is more patriotic than liberalism?
3) "The bulk of his presentation, especially the Q&A, was solid protein. He offered Hillaryesque, do-good details: If we return to the national obesity levels of 1980, it would save $1 trillion in health-care costs!" That is very Hillaryesque: She says the same thing. They're both off by a factor of five.
04/03 07:02 PM
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