I’m also pleased to see that Obama is not sentimental in getting rid of, or allowing to resign, people who fail to perform well or to do what is right. After the disastrous consequences of Bush’s tendencies to stand by his advisors regardless of their incompetence or malfeasance, this does seem to be change we can believe in. Assuming he now finds people who are both qualified to do the work and meet ethical standards. One wonders how hard it will be to find people meeting both of these requirements.

As for Wright, conrad and the rest are too generous. Obama defended Wright until he was past the primaries with large pluralities of black voters (i.e., “Super Tuesday” and Virginia.) Then he took the opportunity offered by Wright’s (characteristically) buffoonish, self-aggrandizing performance at the Press Club to kick him to the curb. The notion that he would’ve continued to embrace Wright as he moved into the primaries dominated by ethnic white voters and Latinos is too silly to consider.

I don’t think it’s much of a criticism of Obama to point out that he’s a calculating politician who doesn’t allow sentiment or ideology to impair his ambitions (or “goals” if you prefer.) After 8 years of looney tunes, even as a right-winger, I think it’s a welcome change.

I just want to say, especially about the Wright thing, in the weeks leading up to Obama’s speech and in the months after his speech, before he finally cut his ties with Wright, he continued to defend the man. His defense of Wright in the speech was but one instance. It was only after Wright kicked dirt in his face that he finally broke. So, let’s recap: near 20 years of loyalty to Wright as his pastor… Months and months of indescribable political turmoil when Obama’s whole future was on the line, before a final, painful break. To cast that as some sort of self-serving expediency when the very public record of what happened shows *constancy* is really in bad taste.

Powers removed herself from the campaign when she saw there was an uproar, but I understand that was a joint decision. Daschle pulled out, and it seemed like a genuine surprise to everyone, including Obama. Since Daschle’s brother is extremely ill with brain cancer, I think it’s fair to argue that Daschle may be too emotionally frail to fight, looking for an excuse to get out of his commitment, or both.

There’s a point when “realism” crosses into repugnant cynicism. No matter what public statements are made to the contrary, you know what REALLY happened, right? This is pretty disappointing lack of realism from a realist.