by Lee Stranahan
Voltaire's quote "The perfect is the enemy of the good." is one of my favorites and as I'm watching President Obama's speech about his new strategy for Iraq, the President himself just referenced it, saying essentially that we can't wait until we have no enemies in Iraq to withdraw.
That idea - that effective action, while not perfect, is better than no action or futile action - is really the touchstone for the entire Obama political philosophy that I admire so much. It's one of the things that I think bugs Obama's critics on both the left and right. We're seeing the Republican crash on the rocks of their own 'perfect' ideology right now.
And this Iraq speech is just a great example of how grateful we should all be every day that this man and not Bush or McCain is our President. He's getting SO much completely right on Iraq, balancing he safety of our troops, the future of the Iraqi people, and the stature of the United States.
UPDATE: That speech was really breathtaking. If there's any doubt in anyone's mind about what a HUGE change Obama is from Bush, this slams that argument shut.
And the spin has aleady started on the cable news - "Obama opposed the surge." No. the surge was a tactic, not a strategy. The Bush strategy was endless war and US forces there forever. The tactic of the surge didn't change that strategy...and was used as a stalling tactic to bolster public opinion.