The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

You Said Used-Car Salesman, Not Me!

Yes, it matters what you're selling! You hit on precisely the two things I am finding troubling about Obama: 1) the persistent absence of any specifics and 2) the absence of any darkness—or recognition that there is darkness—both here and abroad. The fabulous part of the Obama hope message is the call to collective responsibility, a refreshing antidote to big-government liberalism and what Andrew Sullivan calls Clinton's "technocratic meliorism." He makes us all feel that we are responsible for our own destiny and charges us up to do something about it. The disturbing part is the absence of a road map or recognition of land mines. It's one thing to urge racial reconciliation at home or to urge an end to anti-immigrant rhetoric. It's another to imply that the same strategy works in Iraq, or Pakistan, or Gaza, or North Korea, or Russia. As Leon Wieseltier writes, "What is the role of a conciliator in an unconciliating world?" Maybe Obama can answer this question, but he doesn't. Or he does with the same pat answer: "Yes, we can."