I collect vintage postcards commemorating Lincoln and Washington, and I spent many hours this Presidents' Day weekend thinking about American politics as I mounted my cards in picture frames and read stories about a recent poll of historians that identified this dynamic duo as our two best presidents ever.

I also spent too many hours watching the last episodes of the old TV series The West Wing. I got into the show just three months ago after I learned how to download all seven seasons onto my iPhone.

Using a cast of brilliant, neurotic, obsessive, and humanly flawed characters -- not unlike the great American heroes from the Revolutionary War to today -- each show conveys the enormous moral complexity of pursuing public policy in a political system where ethics and expediency continually clash. The relentless scheming and strategizing prove the observation: "Laws are like sausages; it's better not to see them being made."

What an irony that my immersion in highly idealized visions of Lincoln and Washington, and highly pragmatic versions of modern American leaders, comes in the midst of my distaste for the giant sausage that President Obama is about to sign into law.

I'm disgusted at both the unwillingness of the Democrats to limit the stimulus bill to programs that are truly likely to create jobs and ease credit and the decision of all but a few Republicans to vote on purely partisan lines, looking for some future political advantage.

But then I realized that Lincoln's efforts to reunite the country and free slaves were no less filled with compromises and inconsistencies.

I'm not willing to surrender my idealism or lower my expectations, but I can't underestimate the challenges inherent in making this democracy work. And I know I shouldn't under-appreciate the men and women in the trenches who are trying to make things better.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.