Obama: An Open-Minded Pragmatist

My favorite politicians are those who think like idealists but govern as pragmatists, especially those who don't have their egos on the line about their own proposals and ideas.

By saying that he welcomes ideas from any quarter, as long as he can be shown that the ideas will work, Obama is taking the attitude that whatever works best is the best solution. That should give us some confidence in his approach to the economy.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Barack Obama said today that he never expected the process of crafting a stimulus package to be easy and that he welcomed any idea, regardless of author, that would get the economy running at a more effective and efficient level. "What I want to do is get past the habit that sometimes occurs in Washington," he said, "[where what matters is] whose idea is it, what ideological corner does it come from. Just show me." Speaking as his aides were on the Hill trying to hammer out congressional agreement on a stimulus package, Obama said he would solicit advice even from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, whose column today criticized the initial stimulus proposal as insufficient. "I want this to work," said the president-elect. "This is not an intellectual exercise and there is no pride of authorship. If members of Congress have good ideas, if they have a project that would create jobs in ways that do not hamper the [economy in the long-term]... then I'm going to accept it."