Sometimes gray is a "good thing"

OK, I have never had a gray room. I've never had a gray car (silver, but that doesn't count). The gray color palette is not one of the options that jumps right out at you in the paint section at Home Depot. But, there are times, as Martha Stewart would say, when gray is a "good thing." This is one of those times, at least in the political sense.

We finally have a president in the in the White House who can see and, more importantly, understand the concept of grayness. It took a long time for us to get to this point. Americans had to be receptive to this notion as well. We Americans are not much for subtlety. We tend to like our options Black and White. Black and White is easy; gray is more abstract.

When I initially thought about this blog entry, I had assumed that I would just be referring to the George W. Bush administration. You know, President Bush loved Black and White. There was: good vs evil, rich vs poor, love of country vs anti-military...the list goes on and on. Senator John McCain had once been a "gray" kind of guy. You know, "reaching his hand across the Senate aisle." That view went away quickly, once he began running for office. After adding Sarah Palin to the mix, with all of her "real Americans" kind of talk, McCain's bus became more black and white than a skunk (just the mention of Palin increases my reference to wildlife creatures).

It is unfair to suggest that the Black and White era of politics (at least our most recent rendition) started with George W. Bush. The Clinton terms in office were not very "gray loving" either. Both Bill and Hillary Clinton came from a very "us vs them" mindset. Although some of it may be in response to realities of the times, the approach was definitely there. Even Bill Clinton's campaign office was referred to as the, "War Room." In 2008, when Hillary Clinton was running for president, Americans seemed to not only reject her, but this Black and White thinking as well.

I guess the next challenge for President Obama, is whether or not the U.S. will continue to embrace his receptiveness to seeing the nuances of gray, now that he is in office. President Obama's recent sit-down interview with Al-Arabiya News definitely tested the waters. Op-ed columnist Roger Cohen writes that the new president’s abandonment of post-9/11 Bush doctrine is a critical breakthrough. It resolves nothing but opens the way for a rapprochement with a Muslim world long cast into the “against-us” camp. Nothing good in Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan or Iran could happen with that Manichean chasm. I guess you can always have setbacks. Not a single Republican voted for Obama's economic stimulus package. It did manage to pass, however, 244-188. This is how the Huffington Post described the situation:
I guess that not even "going gray," is always that Black and White