Doing Right Is Hardest Of All

I felt that old twinge, nay the lump in the throat again as I watched Obama thunder away at a Madison college rally this evening. I guess it's my version of Chris Matthews’ “thrill up the leg.” This is a president who sorely needed to publicly unload his political burdens. And, oh my, unload he did. And it was probably healthy for him to do so.

The key passage that stood out for me:

"I know sometimes it feels a long way from the hope and excitement that we felt on Election Day or the day of the inauguration. But I’ve got to say, we always knew this was going to take time. We always knew this was going to be hard. I said it was going to be hard, remember? I said I was going to tell you some things you didn’t want to hear. I said that we were going to have to make some difficult choices. I said not everybody was going to be happy with every single decision I made. You did not elect me to do what was easy. You didn’t just elect me to read the polls and figure out how to keep myself in office. ... You elected me to do what was right."

Exactly. Know hope.