There are two fascinating developments that have arisen with Barack Obama’s move to the center. Newsweek reports that Obama is leading McCain by only three points: 44% to 41%. Compare this with last month’s poll in which Obama led McCain 51% to 36%. It would appear that Obama supporters not only flocked to McCain, but, more importantly, preferred not to support either candidate. The Washington Post also reports that Obama is now having difficulties not only courting former Clinton supporters with deep pockets, but raising money in general. The activist base that Obama built up in the first six months of 2008 appears to have stopped sending along money. And who can blame them really? When your shining knight becomes a garden-variety opportunist, it’s probably better to spend the money on liquor.
There was an animated discussion here a few days ago over whether Obama’s shift to the center represented political realities that were necessary to take in or this represented the ultimate betrayal. I still feel that Obama has betrayed his base of supporters with his unpardonable trifecta of FISA flip-flopping, faith-based initiative, and the capitulation of public financing. But the best thing that Obama can probably do at this point is to tell the American people that he may have made a bad political decision, stop playing the “consistency” card (Obama pledged to filibuster any FISA bill with telecom immunity, but of course caved this week), and demonstrate in a big way that he actually gives a damn about the Fourth Amendment. He was able to pull out of the Reverend Wright scandal with his “A More Perfect Union” speech, presenting a complex and unexpected statement on a major national problem. Of course, back in March, he also had dwindling poll numbers in Pennsylvania. Thus, I’m wondering what would happen if Obama ran his campaign with the same “come from behind” tactic that has led him to frequently awe his supporters. Unfortunately, Obama’s recent actions have demonstrated that he is uninterested in taking risks now that he has the Democratic nomination in the bag. That may very well be the stuff of presidential material. But after two terms of Bush, I believe the American people are tired of presidential candidates who have sunk to the lowest common denominator. If Obama wishes to preach “consistency,” he has a responsibility to live up to the message of hope that he began his campaign with. And if he continues to demonstrate a desire to piss on the Constitution and to insult the intelligence of those who have endorsed him, he deserves to be raked across the coals without mercy.
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
You don’t actually think there’s a chance he will reposition himself further to the left, do you? Based on one poll? This election has hardly started. You’re going to be crazed at the end of it if this amount of pandering enrages you. Kerry had one hell of an energized Democratic base…
Name an American President who did *not* play the awful game. Clinton? Carter? Kennedy? Roosevelt? Lincoln? Snort. There’s something adolescently self-destructive about a Left that demands a nobility in its candidates that has *never* been seen in American national politics; Vaclav Havel was as close as any polity is going to come to having a sincerely groovy dad in higher office, but that’s just those crazy Czechs for you. Anyone who now feels “betrayed” by Obama isn’t, obviously, old enough to vote anyway.
The trick is to get behind the candidate who comes closest to not embodying one’s foulest nightmare, n’est-ce pas?
I’m sorry. I’ve been following this whole thing and getting absolutely livid. IF YOU DON’T VOTE FOR OBAMA OR DON’T VOTE AT ALL, YOU ARE AN IDIOT. Not you, Ed, I mean generally.
Is it possible to campaign from one position and govern from another? Absolutely. Our governor here in Florida, Charlie Crist, campaigned from the right and is governing from a populist middle for the most part.
But the more important point is: McCain is a hypocritical kook and if he’s elected this country won’t be worthy of the idea of being a country at all in four more years.
Find me five regular voters, or even fairly well educated ones, who know the implications of the FISA vote, give a damn about public financing and don’t yawn about non-discriminatory faith-based initiatives, and I’ll show you the only five voters like that in the America. Ed, I understand your problems with Obama, but to start now riding the back of the media as if this is the Ides of July is just silly. Making predictions about anything before the conventions isn’t like reading tea leaves, but week old coffee grounds.
I agree with Jeff 100%.