The Occasional Observer

David Brooks takes a close look at the Illinois Senate race, and concludes that Kirk is one of the really good guys in American politics. And that his reward for it is having his name dragged through gutter, and to have to lower himself to doing the same to his opponent. I really liked this particular quote, especially the Frum observation:

The [American political] system will inflame your weaknesses... Then the bad will come to define you, and the good you’ve achieved will be forgotten.

Few people try to weigh the good against the bad and reach some measured judgment. Instead, as David Frum once observed, they regard candidates the way adolescents regard parents: if they are not perfect then they must be irredeemable. [my emphasis]