"Love, Obama, and Blue: Out of the blue I asked, ""Have you ever read Reinhold  Niebuhr?""  Obama's tone changed. ""I love him. He's one of my favorite  philosophers.""  So I asked, What do you take away from him?  ""I take away,"" Obama answered in a rush of words, ""the  compelling idea that there's serious evil in the world, and  hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in  our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't  use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away  the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are  hard, and not swinging from naïve idealism to bitter  realism  brainstatic  I just want to remind everyone that we once had presidents who talked like this  and we still can again. John Fugelsang"
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