I'm not quite as lazy as I look

I haven't posted here in a long time, obviously, but here's a recent comment from me on Openleft.com. You can search there for commenter redstatepinko if you have any reason to wonder what i've been thinking.

Three hopeful themes on on which to mastu--oops I mean meditate:

1) Many people who currently answer opinion polls in a "conservative" fashion are more persuadable now than they have been for long time, for reasons that are easy to imagine. And many of them just voted for a "socialist," who we hope will be persuading them on a regular basis from his bully pulpit. This will at least move some of them closer to the center.

2) Obama and his team are not merely good message-crafters, but good temperature-takers as well, and have proven their ability focus on obtainable goals, thus avoiding the possibility of a Gingrich-style midterm ambush. Pragmatism need not be identical to "center-rightism," because...

3) ...There is every reason to believe that Obama is sincere in his dare-to-dream hopeyness. This means that he will have to be receptive to well-crafted arguments for progressive policies that are clearly in the national interest.