Brooks on Obama and McCain

David Brooks contrasts the two candidates appealing to independents - John McCain and Barack Obama. I particularly liked this quote:

In policy terms, [Obama] is an orthodox liberal. He never tells audiences anything that might make them uncomfortable. In the Senate, he didn’t join the Gang of 14, which created a bipartisan consensus on judges, because it would have meant deviating from liberal orthodoxy and coming to the center. How do you build a trans-partisan coalition when every single policy you propose is reliably on the left?

This is one of the things I love about McCain:

McCain’s campaign events are unpredictable. At Obama events, the candidate gives a moving speech while the crowd rises deliriously as one. McCain holds town meetings. People challenge him, sometimes angrily. And if they oppose him, McCain will come back to them two or three times so that there can be an honest exchange of views. Some politicians try to persuade their audience that they agree with them. McCain welcomes disagreement and talks about it.