Word: obamaã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...hero-worship is meant to show that any vote for Obama must be based on race or charisma rather than a substantive platform. Abrasive—and methodologically flawed—as Stern’s approach is, there’s some grain of truth to his conclusions. Obama??s winsome personality can at times override his actual policy proposals; after all, he’s not only a president, but also a family man (globetrotting with photogenic wife and daughters), a sex symbol (bodysurfing shirtless in Hawaii), and a stage presence (snagging a Grammy...
...agrees are important—building strong institutions, defending human rights—are not enough. Many of the raised hackles stemmed from the exquisite irony of using a platform for peace for a defense of war. Yet the disconnect goes still deeper. With more clarity than ever before, Obama??s speech peeled away his slick exterior to reveal the inner workings of his moral universe—a universe that is old-fashioned, even unfashionable, and far more controversial than many of his most ardent admirers realize...
...next breath, he spelled it out explicitly: “As the world grows smaller, you might think it would be easier for human beings to recognize how similar we are, to understand that we’re all basically seeking the same things.” In Obama??s eyes, America is good, and it is its responsibility to spread this goodness so that everyone may achieve the universal ideal of happiness...
...Judeo-Christian overtones here are obvious enough. But to me, at least, Obama??s somewhat oblique reference to the “moral imagination” also recalls the title of Lionel Trilling’s 1950 classic, “The Liberal Imagination.” Writing an introduction to a posthumous collection of Trilling’s essays in 2000, Leon Wieseltier praised the literary critic—along with theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and intellectual historian Isaiah Berlin—for remaining clear-eyed in dark times, a “rationalist with night vision...
...president’s political opponents have denounced excessive spending and claim that additional stimulus will only swell the budget deficit further. To an extent these critics are correct—further domestic spending will make Obama??s goal of halving the deficit by 2010 even more unlikely...