The Nader

Always fun to excerpt from the Washington Times gloating over the state of the Democratic Party in a year where the GOP Brand is as soiled as it has been in years.

Saturday in that hallowed periodical, on the verge of the Senate's Embrace of Unaccountable Wiretapping, appeared the following headline:
Obama's move to center irks left: Blogs demand return to liberal orthodoxy


Now, this headline is patently stupid. Despite the deluge of Talking Points since the beginning of July, Obama has not in fact "moved to the center." Indeed, as Andrew Sullivan has delightedly pointed out, Obama was never into "liberal orthodoxy" (read: liberal positions on issues). His campaign is about "improving the tone in Washington," about "bringing people together," and most importantly ladies and gentlemen, it is about winning.

To Left Bloggers like the Kos Kidz and the Huffington Army, who have felt so betrayed all month, Harrogate has a message for ye: "He has not changed. It is rather that ye are catching a glimmer of truth, that you wrote onto Obama what you wanted to see, and now you are realizing that your writing it did not make it so."


Verily, how fitting that he will not be giving his acceptance speech at the Convention proper. Will he even speak there at all? It would perhaps be better if he did not. Just let the other speakers sing his praises to heaven, and then bring down the curtain on the Veep nominee and drop five or ten balloons. Yes, it will be a Rhetorical Spectacle and the pundits will drool.

But another thing that it will definitively do, it will drain the actual convention. It will emphasize that Obama is not carrying the Democratic banner. The Party for him is a vehicle, nothing more, nothing less. He could just as easily be holding his acceptance speech in Chicago.

Where does your hero and Harrogate's, the selfless Ralph Nader, fit into the equation?

In the past week alone, Democratic advocacy groups say their Web sites have been lit up by angry complaints attacking Mr. Obama's character and honesty, threatening to withhold their contributions, or worse, shift their allegiance to independent candidate Ralph Nader.

"We've been hearing more from voters who are disconcerted about Obama's move to the right. We're hearing from antiwar folks, civil-liberties people and other activists concerned about his flip-flops and considering voting for Nader," said Chris Driscoll, media director for the Nader for president campaign.

"We've had a big increase in the past couple of weeks in our Web site hits and our online fundraising contributions," he said.

A CNN poll of 906 registered voters reported this week that Mr. Nader's support has risen to 6 percent, potentially enough of a margin to deny Mr. Obama close-fought battleground states.

Aint life grand.