Sunday, July 13, 2008

And Don't Forget Lurch II

And his cheerleaders are beginning to realize that Obama may not be the
Arthurian knight in shining armor, that he may not be Mr. Tumnus, the gentle
forest faun of our presidential politics. Months after his inauguration, after
he makes Billy Daley the secretary of the treasury and Michael Daley the
secretary of zoning and promotes Patrick Fitzgerald to become the attorney
general of Mars, the political left may figure out that Obama is a Chicago
politician.

"Only an idiot would think or hope that a politician going
through the crucible of a presidential campaign could hold fast to every
position, steer clear of the stumbling blocks of nuance and never make a
mistake," wrote Bob Herbert in The New York Times. "But Barack Obama went
out of his way to create the impression that he was a new kind of political
leader—more honest, less cynical and less relentlessly calculating than most. .
. . Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He's lurching right when
it suits him