“I do think there had been a paucity of leadership from Obama on health care and the larger moral issue (e.g., we’re all in this together) until his speech Wednesday night. The last portion of his speech when he spoke of the American character and how we diminish both our country and ourselves when we engage in a politics of fear and destruction is just what the country needed to hear. And it’s a message that needs continued reiteration.

“Health care is one way to elicit the sense that we are in this together and that we have responsibilities and obligations toward one another. Another important step will be immigration reform. Like health care, this issue will also generate lots of heat and passion. But, as with health care, the status quo cannot continue and a president must show real leadership to engender reforms to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

“Ultimately, my optimism is not placed in a particular president but in the American people. It’s the individual decisions we are making in our personal lives–be it marrying someone of a different race, or an increased acceptance of homosexuals as friends and neighbors, and a thousand other such decisions–that will ultimately alter our politics.

“This is not to say that we don’t have a politics of discomfort. We do. And the greatest threat to Obama comes from a heightened sense of populism built on grievance. But the decisions Obama makes and we make will ultimately change our politics.”