Thursday, March 26, 2009

Obama's Persistence Is A Hobgoblin Too

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is that any less true of persistence?

According to The Washington Post, during his press conference Obama emphasized the them of patience and determination, that

"whole philosophy of persistence, by the way, is one that I'm going to be emphasizing again and again in the months and years to come as long as I'm in this office. I'm a big believer in persistence."

Abe Greenwald notes that Obama is not always persistent:

How curious that this constitutional persistence should appear now. After all, we have been engaged in a difficult war in Mesopotamia for six years, and through it all, Barack Obama has been extolling the virtues of quitting. Change, I suppose.

One could easily argue that Greenwald is being less than fair--Obama would claim that he disagreed with both the war in Iraq in general and with the surge as well: which would indicate that Obama does not believe in pursuing a 'foolish persistence'--it would also remind us that his opposition to the surge was wrong.

A similar persistence is Obama's dedication to the idea of the two state solution, of creating a second Palestinian state.

The key to the success of persistence is to understand the reason for the failure--otherwise there is another quote that is applicable:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

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