Categorical Aperitif

Michael Tomasky makes one:

The general point I was trying to make was that Obama, more than many other politicians, may have a goal of X in mind, but he will never state X as his goal. He'll state Y as his goal and let others move him toward X. Then everybody gets to X together. It's good strategy that creates good feelings all around.

One of the most annoying things that's been happening during this transition is that Obama and his team announce such-and-such a thing, and it's not exactly what liberals want, and people start accusing him of being a sell-out and a hypocrite. As Mick said at Altamont, brothers and sisters, cool out. He is a slow and deliberate chess player who conceals his endgame strategy as long as he possibly can. Take it up with your shrinks if you must, but do try to remember that it'll be at least four months before we should start reaching any conclusions.

I admit that things like his relative silence on Gaza, his ominous and all-too-neoconnish mutterings about Iranian nukes, his picks of Rick Warren and Sanjay Gupta, etc. make me very worried, but I'll try to keep this advice in mind and hope that it's all just part of how Obama plays a masterful progressive game in an increasingly troglodyte land. Hope hope hope.