I thought he was supposed to be different

Remember how Barack Obama is supposed to be the great purple hope who rises above the politics of cynicism and partisanship that so many voters are so sick of? Well, that's the guy he would be except for when political necessity demands that he acts just like any other calculating politics. The Washington Post, in a profile of a top advisor to Senator Obama "The Outsider's Insider," reveals one such moment.

It was the fall of 2005, and the celebrated young senator -- still new to Capitol Hill but aware of his prospects for higher office -- was thinking about voting to confirm John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice. Talking with his aides, the Illinois Democrat expressed admiration for Roberts's intellect. Besides, Obama said, if he were president he wouldn't want his judicial nominees opposed simply on ideological grounds.

And then Rouse, his chief of staff, spoke up. This was no Harvard moot-court exercise, he said. If Obama voted for Roberts, Rouse told him, people would remind him of that every time the Supreme Court issued another conservative ruling, something that could cripple a future presidential run. Obama took it in. And when the roll was called, he voted no.

"Pete's very good at looking around the corners of decisions and playing out the implications of them," Obama said an interview when asked about that discussion. "He's been around long enough that he can recognize problems and pitfalls a lot quicker than others can."

In other words, he voted against Roberts, not because of Roberts' qualifications, but because he was afraid it would come back to bite him politically. And for opponents of Chief Justice Roberts who would argue that his rulings have justified the left's suspicion of him, remember that Obama, based on his own judgment would have approved the guy until his advisor told him not to. And he was willing to risk that a President Obama wouldn't have to face a Republican vote in the Senate that would block his own nominations on political grounds. Quite a profile in courage, eh?