Obama is almost devoid of the megalomaniac and sociopathic tendencies so common among top-level politicians. The Greek word sophrosyne is usually translated as "temperance" or "moderation." But its core meaning seems to be closer to "self-command" or "sanity." That's the characteristic that shines through the speeches and actions of Abraham Lincoln. It's on Obama's sophrosyne, even more than on his intelligence, that I'm prepared to bet.

Sophrosyne (σωφροσύνη) is a Greek philosophical term etymologically meaning 'moral sanity' and from there 'self control' or 'moderation' guided by true 'self-knowledge.'

Greeks upheld the ideal of sophrosyne, which means prudence and moderation but ultimately its complex meaning, so important to the ancients, is very difficult to convey in English. It is perhaps best expressed by the two most famous sayings of the oracle at Delphi: "Nothing in excess" and "Know thyself."

The term suggests a life-long happiness obtained when one's philosophical needs are satisfied, resembling the idea of enlightenment through harmonious living. It is a nearly lost Classical ideal, but is enjoying some revival today with its emphasis on individuals to live within the proportions of reason and nature, this being achieved through practical wisdom and self knowledge. Parallels abound in eastern thought, in Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.

Against it? I should be positively astounded to hear anything that could be said FOR it. Why the whole bloody place is the most unspeakable matriarchy in the whole history of civilization! Look at yourself! The way your wife and her strumpet of a mother push you through the hoop! As far as I can see, American men have been totally emasculated- they're like slaves! They die like flies from coronary thrombosis while their women sit under hairdryers eating chocolates & arranging for every 2nd Tuesday to be some sort of Mother's Day! And this infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all time in this Godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all this this prepostrous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like that if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight.

Obama is almost devoid of the megalomaniac and sociopathic tendencies so common among top-level politicians.

Obama is almost devoid of the megalomaniac and sociopathic tendencies

DAVID BROOKS on what some of us are enjoying about the Clinton / Obama contest: "The problem is that both the feminist movement Clinton rides and the civil rights rhetoric Obama uses were constructed at a time when the enemy was the reactionary white male establishment. Today, they are not facing the white male establishment. They are facing each other."

He gets away with having racist and antisemitic associations.

Obama is almost devoid gives the public appearance of being devoid of the megalomaniac and sociopathic tendencies so common among top-level politicians.