Why Obama Is The Man

In response to a question about the revelation that Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, Obama said the following: [via Marc Ambinder]

I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn't be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits.

I expect you'll admit that it's a sad day when exhibiting common decency is so uncommon that it puts a man head and shoulders above his opponents. But that's the country we live in. Compare this with, for example, HRC's "I have no reason to think he is" in response to queries about Obama being Muslim. SOP among politicians in our day is to mouth the obligatory words in some tepid way calculated to dissuade the attack dogs not one whit. Instead, Obama says exactly the right thing--does exactly the right thing--clearly, forcefully, unequivocally: "Let me be as clear as possible...people's families are off limits, and people's children are especially off limits." And then the wholly supererogatory: "you know my mother had me when she was 18."

I've become so disgusted with vile cruelty and ghastly irrationality of American politics that actually choked up with I read this. Though, I guess I ought to admit that that's starting to happen with almost alarming frequency when I hear that guy speak. Fairly unusual thing, that...

Finally, a contemporary American leader who inspires me to hope that maybe--just maybe--we don't irredeemably suck after all.

[Footnotey thing: The story in question isn't even the story I alluded to in this post, as intertube illuminati no doubt realize. But if prying into this is off-limits, then a fortiori prying into the other stuff is off-limits, despite what a few loons at dKos might think.]