As the rosy glow of campaign and "yes we can" chants recede into political memory, Obama finds himself grappling with the same problems, demands, and limitations that were faced by other Presidents. It turns out that pursuing the purely ideological approach simply doesn't cut it. Each problem is unique and each has to be thought through carefully. Here, we can be pleasantly surprised by his shift to reliance on his intellect rather than dogma. With a glaring exception of Health Reform (which turned into a perfect example of bi-partisan, ideologically driven crap), he has shown willingness to think through the issues and change his prior ideologically based views. Consider the following: Nuclear energy, Oil drilling, Israel policy, Iran Policy, and other minor issues. He has shown himself willing to open his mind, think through the issue and come to a proper, balanced approach. In each of these cases he has strayed from the liberal dogma and took the heat from the far left. Still, there are issues where he continues to suffer from the ideological bias (Russia, Europe, Immigration, etc.), but what is heartening to see is that when the he finally confronts the issue head on himself, he defers to his intellect. Some of this can be attributed to Hillary Clinton who has largely been a pleasant surprise on the foreign policy issues, but most of the credit goes to Obama.
This presents a real challenge to Republicans. For if they don't do the same, by the time elections roll around they may be seen as dogmatic and obstructionist and Obama as open minded and pragmatic. It would be a shame if that enables the real hard core ideologues such as Pelosi and Boxer to remain in power.
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