Worth quoting: Andrew Sullivan

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned Andrew Sullivan on this blog, much less quoted him. I often disagree with him, sometimes strongly, but when I agree with him, he puts things far better and more strongly than I could hope to do.

So here’s an excerpt from a piece he wrote for Newsweek, “How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics”. Read the whole thing—it’s well-stated and a must for any Obama supporter, as well as those who suspect (correctly) that Republican propaganda, like that of some progressives, isn’t entirely correct:

“[Liberals] miss, it seems to me, two vital things. The first is the simple scale of what has been accomplished on issues liberals say they care about. A depression was averted. The bail-out of the auto industry was—amazingly—successful. Even the bank bailouts have been repaid to a great extent by a recovering banking sector. The Iraq War—the issue that made Obama the nominee—has been ended on time and, vitally, with no troops left behind. Defense is being cut steadily, even as Obama has moved his own party away from a Pelosi-style reflexive defense of all federal entitlements. Under Obama, support for marriage equality and marijuana legalization has crested to record levels. Under Obama, a crucial state, New York, made marriage equality for gays an irreversible fact of American life. Gays now openly serve in the military, and the Defense of Marriage Act is dying in the courts, undefended by the Obama Justice Department. Vast government money has been poured into noncarbon energy investments, via the stimulus. Fuel-emission standards have been drastically increased. Torture was ended. Two moderately liberal women replaced men on the Supreme Court. Oh, yes, and the liberal holy grail that eluded Johnson and Carter and Clinton, nearly universal health care, has been set into law. Politifact recently noted that of 508 specific promises, a third had been fulfilled and only two have not had some action taken on them. To have done all this while simultaneously battling an economic hurricane makes Obama about as honest a follow-through artist as anyone can expect from a politician.”

Tip o’ the Hat to Joe.My.God., the comments for which are, sadly, filled with the usual supposedly progressive/liberal Obama haters who prove Sullivan’s point by dismissing, disregarding and disrespecting the progress the country has made under Obama because it doesn’t fit their mental picture of what should have been done in their perfect world, or because it wasn’t done by whoever their perfect candidate was.