PassionateCentrist

While Obama has been short on specifics, his rhetoric has been very centrists in many regards and some phrases sound as if they are right out of the "Two Percent Solution Book." Specifically:

"What's stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics — the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle big problems."

"the smallness of our politics" is an idea that the 2 Percent Solution talks about many times, in regard to our social issues.

And how about this on education:

"Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability."

That's not exactly a lefty position. I'm not sure the teacher's unions will be jumping for joy, but this sounds like the grand bargain offered in the book.

Overally I'm intrigued. Of all the candidates Obama is talking like a centrist and talking about tackling some of the big issues that have been systematically ingnored for the last 15-20 years. We'll have to see if the details match the rhetoric ... and if he changes his tune when the political going gets tougher.