Obama Dines, The Conservatives Whine

The division of the country under George Bush is getting better. Liberalism, science, facts, oversight, transparency, competency, engagement, debate, and the desire to to bring people together are all back in vogue.

Whereas Bush needed his coterie of cave-dwelling thugs to isolate him from new ideas and conflicting points of view, Obama has no problem meeting with his perceived enemy, the conservatives. Witness last night when Obama went to George Will's house for a dinner with fellow echo chamber and perennially wrong pundits Bill Kristol, David Brooks, and Charles Krauthammer. Who cares?

But as Jonathan Chait of TNR points out:

"Imagine this counterfactual: George W. Bush (or maybe a victorious John McCain) sat down before his first inauguration with Paul Krugman, E.J. Dionne, and Frank Foer. Would conservatives have reacted with the same equanimity? No, I think they'd have gone nuts. And the reason is that they wouldn't have confidence in Bush or McCain to be surrounded by liberal ideas without being deeply influenced by them. I don't think they'd have reacted this way if, say, a President Mitt Romney did the same thing.

And that's why liberals aren't having a cow. They know that Obama understands far more about policy than any of his right-wing dinner companions, is used to being exposed to opposing ideas, and won't come out of that dinner telling his staff, "Hey, did you know we cut half the capital gains tax and raise more revenue?"

A dinner with liberals would have put O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Hannity on Code Orange. Their fear of intellect is so obvious. The world of Bush and McCain, where hitting your head against the wall and not blinking is rewarded, is over.

Andrew Sullivan adds:

"I found the lack of liberal snittiness about last night to be a sign that Obama has us all on a learning curve. What matters is not who's up or down, or who's in or out. What matters is what he's proposing to do and whether it makes sense. This is quite a change for Washington and it will take adjustment. But it makes a lot of sense.

I mean: If you're concerned with government before politics, as Obama is, and intellectually confident, as Obama is, you are not afraid to encounter any number of countervailing opinions. Obama isn't afraid. Increasingly, I think his greatest strength is simply his emotional intelligence in this respect. He knows that people need to feel engaged, respected and not neglected - especially his domestic opponents and America's enemies.

I also predict that Obama will win over the conservative intellectual elites in Washington as effectively as he did at Harvard and Chicago. He won't win over the pure partisans. But the intellectually honest and open-minded ones? You watch."

I'm sure George Will is in the Book of the Dead to most hardcore conservatives.

Source: Andrew Sullivan