Lurching With Abandon By BOB HERBERT
The Bear on Jul 10 2008 at 8:24 am | Filed under: Election 08’
In one of the numbers from “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sings, with a mixture of emotions: “We haven’t got the man … we had when we began.”
Back in January when Barack Obama pulled off his stunning win in the Iowa caucuses, and people were lining up in the cold and snow for hours just to get a glimpse of him, there was a wide and growing belief — encouraged to the max by the candidate — that something new in American politics had arrived.
His brilliant, nationally televised victory speech in Des Moines sent a shiver of hope through much of the electorate. “The time has come for a president who will be honest about the choices and the challenges we face,” said Senator Obama, “who will listen to you and learn from you, even when we disagree, who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know.”
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. 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.
You would be able to listen to him without worrying about what the meaning of “is” is.
This is why so many of Senator Obama’s strongest supporters are uneasy, upset, dismayed and even angry at the candidate who is now emerging in the bright light of summer.
One issue or another might not have made much difference. Tacking toward the center in a general election is as common as kissing babies in a campaign, and lord knows the Democrats need to expand their coalition.
But Senator Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash.
SideBear by Jim Mc: Bob Herbert is an African-American fellow who would have been considered in the Leftist company of Barack Obama, at least last year’s version of, “the messiah”. I have no idea though what would have caused Bob to think he would get, “bold principled leadership on important matters”, from a man who couldn’t even find a way to separate himself from this Rev. Wright, until the Trinity United roof caved in on him.
Anyway poor Bob now finds himself “uneasy, upset, dismayed, and even angry”, when all Barack is doing, is behaving like a Democrat politician, albeit one in the lightweight ranks.
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