I’m a fan of the New York Times’ roster of op-ed columnists. I don’t always agree with them, but I usually learn something interesting. And I have a favorite…or two. Sure, Maureen Dowd is good for some A-level snark along with some solid reporting, and it’s really wonderful fun to watch poor David Brooks in his love-hate-love-hate-really, really love relationship with Obama (go ahead and buy an Obama button already, Brooks; we understand). Frank Rich’s Sunday columns are to be savored, but Bob Herbert, who writes on Tuesdays and Saturdays, is pretty close to perfect. I’m sure if I looked up the word “dignified” in the dictionary, he would be offered as an example. Of course he’s been writing for years, but during the Democratic Primary I turned to him for real analysis and comfort. His tone is so even and his resistance to spin is so solid that when he finally offers criticism, it leaps off the page, and I feel sorry for the person he’s calling out. He didn’t beat up on Clinton during the primaries, and he regularly called for Obama to add specifics to his lofty rhetoric. And he called for those specifics over and over again, offering a barometer of Obama’s journey from promises to concrete solutions.

I’ve come to see him as the New York Times’ ultimate op-ed realist. When Reverend Wright tried to bury Obama, it was Herbert who offered the best, most searing critique in his piece The Pastor Cast a Shadow:

All but swooning over the wonderfulness of himself, the reverend acts like he is the first person to come up with the idea that blacks too often get the short end of the stick in America, that the malignant influences of slavery and the long dark night of racial discrimination are still being felt today, that in many ways this is a profoundly inequitable society.

This is hardly new ground. The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why — if he is so passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks — does he seem so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African-American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency.

When Obama finally clinched the nomination (despite Clinton’s stunning diva display of denial), his piece Savor the Moment reminded us that victory did not belong to Obama alone:

This election year has been a testament to the many long decades of work and sacrifice by men and women — some famous, most not; some still alive, many gone — to build a more equitable and just American society.

When the night riders were fitted for their robes, when Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door, when lowlifes mocked and humiliated those who were fighting for women’s rights, they were trying to forestall the realization of this type of moment in history.

We’ll see whether Senator Obama gets elected president. But whether he does or not, this is a moment of which Americans can be proud, a moment the society can build upon.

So a victory lap is in order. Not for Senator Obama (he still has a way to go), but for all those in every station in life who ever refused to submit quietly to hatred and oppression. They led us to a better place.

More than anything, though, whether he is writing about the need to place more emphasis on teaching math in school, or criticizing the GOP for the culture wars it keeps in play, he puts a human face on the struggles of Americans. His recent piece, Climbing Down the Ladder begins with the story of Kim Richardson who will surely lose her home later this month. The piece would leave all but the coldest of hearts shaken by how much the greed on Wall Street has cost us all.

So, here’s a cheer to Mr. Herbert with high hopes for his observations about our new president and the challenges we all will face.