“Change you can believe in” was the slogan, now he has sewn up the nomination, gone on his world tour and moved from being the nominee presumptive to the presumptuous nominee, he himself is changing. “The One” is moving right-wards to win over what John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge memorably called The Right Nation.*
Huffington Post, online bible of the liberal political class in America, is getting nervous. The front-page is no longer confident, more full of whines and excuse making. One article highlights Obama’s abandonment of his left-wing primary held policy positions:
Obama now emphasizes his commitment to strong families and heartland values, “Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses.” In this yet unwritten chapter of his next autobiography, Obama tells us he is the candidate of “welfare to work” who supports our troops and “cut taxes for working families.” The shift in his political personae has been startling. Obama has moved right so far and so fast, he could end up McCain’s Vice-Presidential pick.
General-election Obama now billboards his doubts about affirmative action. He has embraced the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption saying, “I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon…everything.” He tells his party “Democrats are not for a bigger government.” Oil drilling is a consideration. His FISA vote and abandonment of public campaign finance introduce us to an Obama of recent invention. And as he abandons his old identity for the new, breeding disenchantment among his formerly passionate left-of-center supporters and, equally, doubts among the center he courts, he risks becoming nothing at all, a candidate who is everything and nothing in the same moment.
Obama looks increasingly likely to unravel by November…
