Month: January 2008

The Sophrosyne Of Obama

I missed this Mark Kleiman post at the time, but it’s a really good one:

Obama is almost devoid of the megalomaniac and sociopathic tendencies so common among top-level politicians. The Greek word sophrosyne is usually translated as "temperance" or "moderation." But its core meaning seems to be closer to "self-command" or "sanity." That’s the characteristic that shines through the speeches and actions of Abraham Lincoln. It’s on Obama’s sophrosyne, even more than on his intelligence, that I’m prepared to bet.

I appreciate it all the more since I often lack it myself.

Clinton Loses Another Black Voter

A reader writes:

I suspect that if Hillary wins this thing the way she’s trying to win it — by race-baiting — black folk will indeed abandon her. Your reader makes the added mistake of underestimating Huckabee’s potential appeal to blacks: he won 40 percent of the black vote in Arkansas. This black voter will certainly give him a closer look if Hillary wins. She’s lost my vote. And she was my first choice until quite recently.

Uncommitted For President

Mark Kleiman gives his endorsement for today’s Democratic Michigan primary. But he has a soft spot for Romney:

Demonstrably, he has an IQ statistically significantly different from zero, isn’t demonstrably bonkers aside from his narcissism, and doesn’t actually believe in anything. That’s a big improvement over much of his opposition.

The Church Of Obama

A perceptive essay by Jonathan Raban on what Obama learned from Jeremiah Wright:

People want The Sermon, not Obama’s well-turned thoughts on foreign or economic policy. What the crowds crave from this scrupulous agnostic is his proven capacity to deliver the ecstatic consolation of old-time religion—a vision of America that transcends differences of race, class, and party, and restores harmony to a land riven under the oppressive rule of a government alien to its founding principles.

The Chimera Of Energy Independence

I wish this brief primer by Robert Bryce weren’t so convincing. One thing worth remembering:

Fans of energy independence argue that if the United States stops buying foreign energy, it will deny funds to petro-states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. But the world marketplace doesn’t work like that. Oil is a global commodity. Its price is set globally, not locally. Oil buyers are always seeking the lowest-cost supplier. So any Saudi crude being loaded at the Red Sea port of Yanbu that doesn’t get purchased by a refinery in Corpus Christi or Houston will instead wind up in Singapore or Shanghai.