I immediately refer you to Obama's words today, as quoted by Al Giordano:
Starting now, let's take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union.
Let's build a government that is responsible to the people, and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable.
The fact that Obama says that he felt that Bush, on a personal level, seemed like a "good guy" doesn't seem all that objectionable. Many sociopaths seems like good guys. That's their modus operandi.
I doubt that Obama is so naive to believe that Bush IS a good guy, but it's not bad politics to say so. So yeah, maybe there's a "lie" in there.
Obama is going to piss alot of people off, people who are invested in politics rather than pragmatics. It's said that politics IS the art of the possible, but we've seen it taken to extremes under Bush & Co. these past eight years.
It doesn't surprise me that after such an abusive president we should object to anything remotely seeming like conciliation. Pragmatism can seem conciliatory. It should be objectionable.
But that's the gamble we all take with Obama. He seems to trying something different. He seems to actually trying to dampen the polarizing aspect of politics in order to allow people the "space" to deal with what is happening right in front of our eyes.
And that's where Obama's "authentic self" shines through. He is providing a vehicle, Organizing for America (piggybacked on to the internet apparatus he build for the campaign), to engage Americans in the work of rebuilding the country at a local level.
Obama has always espoused the "bottom up" approach to organizing. He is showing us today, through this vehicle, that he is a man of his word. Yeah, maybe some "lies" happen. But I, for one, can't help feeling ecstatic every time I hear that on Tueday "Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th American president." No lie, GI. Time for us to step up.