John F. Kerry

The era of Clinton has come and gone, when governing by poll was in force but Clinton at least espoused the view that America was the world leader both in new fresh ideas about how to do things as well as the power to stand up for good when necessary.

The era of Bush is over, when governing by conviction was rejected as being too bull headed and the unilateralism of American foreign policy was found not (necessarily) to be wrong, but to be (arguably) ineffective.

now we are sort of in an era which is a combination of the two- its governing by poll to a certain extent but obama seems to be more apt to hold onto strong principled convictions to me than clinton did (or at least he talks that way)....

the problem (to which there is no easy solution im just asking for peoples opinions if the have any) is that the less conviction you have you might be more popular but then something like North Korea launching a nuke the size of Fat Man and Little Boy comes along- and the best obama can do is say strongly that he deplores it and rejects it.... but since its Governing by poll- that he wont actually be willing to DO ANYTHING about it-

its better than clinton, and it has a chance to be more effective than bush (but thats dubious)....

i guess my question is how do u coerce people to do things unless your are willing to fight but at the same time not scare them into opposing you just to save themselves in the long run?