Memo to Obama critics

ONCE in a blue moon, I happen upon a perfect pearl of insight. Harvard professor James T. Kloppenberg’s essay in Newsweek is such a gem.

Of President Obama he writes:

The shrill tone of Obama’s critics makes reading [Obama’s] books especially illuminating today.

Obama rejects dogma, embraces uncertainty, and dismisses the fables that often pass for history among partisans on both sides who need heroes and villains, and who resist more-nuanced understandings of the past and the present.

After almost two years as president, Obama has failed to satisfy the left for the same reason that he has antagonized the right. He does not share their self-righteous certainty.

Kloppenberg concludes with this penetrating insight:

In November 2010, President Obama remains the man who wrote Dreams and Audacity, a resolute champion of moderation, experimentation, and deliberative, nondogmatic democracy. It’s just that the distorting mirrors of political commentary in America’s fun house can make it hard to recognize him.

This country has no idea how lucky it is to have this man in the White House. The prism through which most Americans view him, the media freak show, certainly does not help. Obama isn’t the Messiah and never claimed to be. He’s just the adult in our national romper room. Professor’s Kloppenberg’s sagacity is a breath of fresh air.