Ok, most of us former Hillary supporters probably agreed with this view. (Indeed, some Democrats
cling to it.) It was why Tom Davis, understanding that his party's brand was in the trash heap, nevertheless
held out hope that John McCain and perhaps some of his fellow travelers would pull through:
The economy is softening and gas prices are skyrocketing, giving Obama an opening to court conservative value voters who are hurting economically. Fortunately, Hillary Clinton has driven a wedge between these competing constituencies, keeping them in play at the Presidential level. It begs the question of how these voters will vote in Congressional races.
Moreover, John McCain is not a polarizing figure. One could argue he is the opposite - moderate, bi-partisan, and unifying, which makes his claim on value voters different from Bush. How these lunch-bucket Democrats, who are culturally more conservative, vote this fall is the key to victory.
The wine and Chablis culturally liberal voters have made their pick...Obama. They, along with African Americans, form the nucleus of the money, the organization and the energy for Democrats this year. His talk of hope and change at 30,000 feet (I call it "Happy Talk"), though short on specifics, captures liberal anxiety about the direction of the country.
The coalition of cultural liberals and African Americans assembled by Obama has left out vast swaths of middle Americans concerned about the war, gas prices and the economy. But they are hardly ready to embrace McCain, let alone Congressional Republicans. Harsh cultural appeals on abortion and guns may have less to do with bringing these Democrats and Independents on board, than reassuring them that we have answers to these other issues.
But now Obama has pulled through and, by hook or by crook, has secured the Democratic nomination. Some of us abhor the tactics he used. But I have a strong suspicion that he knows how to repair the damage and get himself elected. As Brooks puts it:
Just try to imagine Mister Rogers playing the agent Ari in "Entourage" and it all falls into place.
[. . .]
He's the most effectively political creature we've seen in decades. Even Bill Clinton wasn't smart enough to succeed in politics by pretending to renounce politics.
So I strongly suspect that Obama can get himself elected. With him will follow an inevitable wave of Democrats in both houses of Congress. But we should be clear: nobody controls Obama. Not Dick Daley, not Markos, not you, not me, and not even his kool-aid-drinking small dollar donors. His coalition is so finely resolved that no one faction has enough pull to change his course. And the one faction that does, African Americans, will not dare try. The speech Obama gave this weekend denouncing deadbeat dads in the black community was, in my opinion, as much about testing what he could get away with as delivering a message intended to move votes. (I don't know how this issue plays in the AA community, so my analysis is limited here).
In any case, Obama is a free agent. And he will have my support all the way to the White House. I do not trust him, and I consider everything he says fungible. But what I have to rely on is that he chose the Democratic party for enough of the same reasons I did that he will enact policies I believe in. At least, I hope, they will differ from what John McCain would offer. And to echo Brooks, "[a]ll I know for sure is that this guy is no liberal goo-goo."
