Apricots in the White House

The Hungarian word denoting "apricot" is "barack."

A colleague sent along Andrew Sullivan's thoughtful article from the Atlantic on Senator Obama. My response, as written to my colleague, appears below:

I haven’t read anything of Andrew Sullivan’s in a while (despite having his blog bookmarked), so it was a pleasure for me to read this. His ability to approach issues of great contention in a rational manner that defies the traditional ideologies in American politics has always impressed me. (He is, if you didn’t know, a self-declared conservative libertarian.)

Overall, I found the whole piece enlightening, early references to “Islamist terrorism” notwithstanding. I was particularly taken with Sullivan’s recapitulation of Obama’s his view of faith as both a spiritual and intellectual exercise; his view of his religion not as a source of values but as an institution that reinforces values already instilled. With all the other points Sullivan raises, Obama himself rises above the traditional ideologies in American politics, ones, as Sullivan pointed out, have been intensified with the perceived polarization of the US over the past 50 years.

Sadly, an index of polls that examine public opinion of candidates for the Party nominations puts Obama a little over 22 points behind Clinton at 22.9%. And while trial heats show Obama currently leading all viable Republican opponents, Clinton leads in such heats as well with greater margins.

Regardless of this, Sullivan has me solidly in Obama’s camp. (I hereby withdraw all my previous calls to draft Al Gore.)