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Your "All that's necessary..." is a big "all." Looking at the political class today on both sides of the aisle, I'm afraid they just aren't capable of taking any sort of necessary actions Zakaria prescribed. In addition, a President who many saw as a savior who would transcend all of the pettiness has proven no better or influential than any other person who could have won.

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I understand the cynicism, and in a lot of ways, I share it. And I'm not naive, I think that movements should be built to pressure politicians to move in those directions.

I don't think they will make those big decisions on their own. I think the biggest issue with Obama is that he was a centrist who was elected by a mobilization of progressives who thought their job was done on January 21st, 2009.

I do see things building to push that kind of grassroots pressure, though.

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