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    Masterful and Worrisome

    Posted Wednesday, February 25, 2009 1:13 PM | By Emily Yoffe
    I agree with the consensus that Obama was at his best last night. Even in these terrible times, it is a pleasure to watch him at work. One feels grateful for his intelligence, his confidence, his quick mastery of policy, his charm. And yet, when he mentioned that one of his goals was to cure cancer, I thought of the sandstorm scene in The English Patient. Ralph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas find themselves stranded as a desert sandstorm descends. She asks him if they are going to be all right, and he answers "Yes. Absolutely." She replies, " 'Yes' is a comfort. 'Absolutely' is not." When Obama mentioned cancer, I started to feel less comforted. How in the world can he keep shoveling money at the economic crisis and provide universal health care, achieve energy independence, reform our school, cure cancer—while cutting taxes for 98 percent of Americans? I doubt the 2 percent who aren't getting tax cuts are still rich enough to provide the trillions necessary. And I wondered if it is better for a president to have an ambitious agenda and not deliver or scale back his goals so he can possibly actually meet some of them.
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