Waiting for Barack

Ezra Klein has an interesting article about why not Barack Obama in 2008 and I really liked what Ezra had to say. Obama blew us away in 2004 primarily with his inspiring conciliatory convention speech but I kept waiting for him to take a stand and do something that would inspire me -- and, Gawd knows, there were plenty of ooportunities when he could have done so but, instead, he was careful. I see him as planning to be President, not working it. As Ezra says:

Given his national profile and formidable political talents, he could have been a potent spokesman for Democratic causes in the Senate. Instead, he has refused to expend his political or personal capital on a single controversial issue, preferring to offer anodyne pieces of legislation and sign on to the popular efforts of others.

[...]

Indeed, Obama is that oddest of all creatures: a leader who's never led. There are no courageous, lonely crusades to his name, or supremely unlikely electoral battles beneath his belt. He won election running basically unopposed, and then refused to open himself to attack by making a controversial but correct issue his own.

[...]

There are, to be sure, ways Obama could prove his mettle, not to mention his priorities. He could, say, make universal healthcare coverage his public obsession or demand an end to the war in Iraq. He could fight for full public financing of all campaigns, or seek a national living wage.

But until then, if Obama gleams, Democrats have no way of knowing if it's because he's truly an action hero or because he's refused to step out of his packaging. And until that question is answered, the hardened fighters they know are preferable to the attractive cipher they don't.