Avoiding group think

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09rich.html?ref=opinion

Frank Rich has a wonderful column in the NYT today about how most of the conventional wisdom about the election was wrong. I think another strength for Obama was his tuning out the gasbags, and their endless supply of group think. Maybe not having been inside the Beltway for a long time and being grounded by family and friends in Chicago, made it easier to think clearly. There was one moment in the campaign when McCain suspended his campaign to deal with the financial crisis. I worried that Obama would fall into a reactive trap, but he didn't and wisely said, A president should be able to do more than one thing at a time. He kept on talking about policy instead of getting tangled up in the minutiae of attack ads, tempting though it might have been. Can you imagine looking at the 'celebrity' ads and not succumbing to, What are you talking about - you have been THE most frequent political guest on ALL the late night shows, and you were the one that called the press your base. But he was right not to - this time the American people were not bamboozled into voting for the fear and smear candidate.