real leaders

it is sometimes very hard to maintain this perspective, but . . . :

I think of Obama that way. Great change comes at glacial speed. George Washington didn't become a king but he still owned black slaves. So did Jefferson yet that didn't stop him from expanding democracy with the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln waited two years to free the slaves and did so only in the South, exempting the border states still fighting for the Union. Even the New Deal, arguably the most significant change in our government since the revolution, didn't include healthcare, didn't desegregate the schools, etc. Only a George Bush thinks that the one-man "decider" gets to change things at once, at his whim. What a fool. Obama understands what the Bush's of the world and even Bill Clinton fail to grasp. A leader is only as great as her or his contributions to the flow of historical progress.