Wait a minute. Obama's a politician?

Crooks and Liars becomes peeved at Obama's statement on the Supreme Court death penalty decision.

For some background, the Supreme Court rejected states' death penalty decisions for child rapists. As I'm against the death penalty, I think it's a good decision in general. However, when asked, Obama had this response to reporters:

“I disagree with the decision. I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,” Obama told reporters at a press conference in Chicago.

The expected Democratic nominee said he believed the rape of a child “is a heinous crime” that fits the circumstance...

Hands up, everybody. Who out there thinks that "Oh, a child rapist may be bad, but I don't think he deserves death. Just lock him away without parole!" would be a political winner for a Democrat in a hostile media environment?

Now, while most of the blogs get that, they seem to be believe that Obama's suddenly made a hard right turn in his overall politics. Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Perhaps, in his toughened Chicago political fights, he's seen so much unfettered crime that he takes a hardass approach to punishment. Perhaps this is a part of his "I don't do cowering" philosophy that he recently espoused in Rolling Stone.

Whatever the reason, we should never have expected Obama to agree with us on everything. Ideological purity is almost unattainable in the modern political scene without becoming a fringe personality like Dennis Kucinich. I'm certain to have my own disagreements with him as well, but in these tough times, I can't argue with 80% success. If we were talking 40% success, I'd wonder why he was a Democrat at all and didn't join Joe Lieberman, but so far, Obama has kept to the platform and stood for some solid ideals.

To quote Hawkeye Pierce in the M*A*S*H TV show, we have to stop "looking for a custom fit in an off-the-rack world."