My friend and former colleague at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Tom Wark, is one of those people the scope of whose knowledge I find flabbergasting. He writes a blog http://bordellopianist.blogspot.com/  that often I find persuasive because he bases his judgment on a vast understanding of the world in which we both live. His judgments come from a progressive angle.


Unlike folks like Tom, I am unable to approach any topic either from right or left because my intellect and my knowledge are limited. In fact, I find it almost impossible to get past all the gray to a point where I can have a defensible black-or-white position, particularly in politics.

But still, I attempt to exercise my right as a citizen by casting the best vote I can on election day.

Normally, I don't use this blog to discuss politics. With the election over, I'll make an exception because I want to speak about why I voted -- again -- for Barack Obama.

I didn't vote for him because, as my wife, Monica -- once a staunch Republican -- said of Romney: "He's a creep."

I also didn't vote for Obama because all of his work in the past four years has been exemplary.

Before I cast my ballot in 2008, I realized that at least this one time, I had something by which I could measure a candidate. I read Obama's book The Audacity of Hope. (That was a lousy title, I thought, and it certainly didn't acknowledge what I found to be the most promising part of the book.)

What I learned from the book was Obama's preferred approach to governing. As I understood him, he said that he sought to listen to all the ideas available to address a particular problem and then to select that which, to his judgment, seemed best.

There was not a hint of ideology in his professed approach. To me, ideology is the hallmark of an ossified mind, a tool with which one can avoid the strain of thinking critically.

So I voted for Obama in 2008 and then attempted to gauge his performance against his words.

He didn't deliver in all cases, but in many it was possible to see the deliberative process and his attempt to choose a good course.

I'd say you probably could measure his success by the way he pissed off both right and left.

So I voted for Obama again on Tuesday.

End of political discussion.