One of the fundamental conceptual divides between the "liberal mind" and the "conservative mind" is the willingness to factor in intangibles in human affairs. To use Tom as the archetypical Conservative Mind, he dismisses the public will to fix the health care system, for example, as an airy-fairy irrelevancy, and produces hard numbers that demonstrate that the health care system can't be fixed. I've argued the opposite, that the will can produce the means, but in his eyes that is itself an airy-fairy irrelevant argument, and what he reads is "a;ls9843 ald' gyua'dit eahrf".

Yet, with all due respect to Tom, I think it's foolish to discount the power of will in human affairs. To continue with health care as an example, I'm confident that with sufficient will it can be fixed, but the solution will require some readjustment of society, including the economic sphere. (I think that's the problem, that to the conservative mind, the definition of feasibility includes the precondition that the status quo must be preserved and vested interests must not be discomfited. Fixing health care will gore more than a few oxes [weeping].)

Thinking "outside the box", to gag me with a cliche, is admittedly a rare trait, and that's where leaders come in. An individual who can think creatively and communicate the vision to others, can create the public will to accomplish great things.

I think the sticking point for Conservatives, why it seems unnatural to use the words "vision" and "great things" and "Republican" in the same sentence (in re: "And they aren't Republicans") is that when large numbers of people align themselves toward a common goal, they either pursue it in a disorganized way, as a mob; or they work through the system to order the government to do it, and Conservatives just hate that. They'd rather wait for some enterprising businessman to figure out a way to make a profit satisfying the public will. Sometimes that happens, but sometimes it doesn't, and then the problem just festers. Like health care.

Sounds like you don't think much of Obama these days. Me, the reason I favor him is same as it ever was: The intangible factors I've just been describing, the prospect that Obama can charm a sufficient number of Americans, and abash a sufficient number of the rest to reduce reflexive obstructionism, to get a few much-needed repairs accomplished around this place. We need a break in the fighting, at least, just to pick up the pieces.

That's the possibility that I see.