Gail Collins makes a good point in today’s New York Times. Addressing the growing chorus of folks on the Left who have expressed dismay over Senator Obama’s so-called shift to the center, including the Times’ own Bob Herbert and most recently the Rev. Jesse Jackson, she notes that Obama’s been in the center all along:
Think back. Why, exactly, did you prefer Obama over Hillary Clinton in the first place? Their policies were almost identical — except his health care proposal was more conservative. You liked Barack because you thought he could get us past the old brain-dead politics, right? He talked — and talked and talked — about how there were going to be no more red states and blue states, how he was going to bring Americans together, including Republicans and Democrats.
Exactly where did everybody think this gathering was going to take place? Left field?
I think that a lot of people are going to be disappointed with Senator Obama’s moderate positions in the campaign. Many African Americans and young people, in particular, cast their votes for Obama not because of his policy positions but because of intangible factors like the symbolism of electing the first black president or feelings of hope engendered by the Senator’s soaring rhetoric. As Collins points out, these people are just now waking up to what Senator Obama has been saying all along — that he’s the moderate candidate who can bring the Left and Right together.
Remember that back in December, before the Iowa caucuses, Senator Clinton was the great liberal hope. She had all the policy positions in place to address the concerns of each of the various interest groups that dominate the Democratic nominating process. Indeed, that was the well-known and explicit strategy of her campaign manager Mark “Microtrends” Penn. But after Senator Obama’s superior ground game won him the Iowa caucuses, he became seen as a viable candidate. Emotion took over from reason.
I don’t mean to suggest that there’s anything wrong with voting one’s hopes. Emotion plays an enormous role in politics. But I do agree with Collins that folks who now claim to be disappointed with Senator Obama weren’t really listening to him.
So what’s a disappointed Lefty voter to do? You can vote for Ralph Nader. I fully expect to him to trot out the old canard that Senator Obama isn’t any different from Senator McCain. That worked well for him in 2000 and could easily lead to similar results again this year. You can always stay home on Election Day, which would have the same effect. You might as well vote for Senator McCain.
Or you can suck it up and get ready to be disappointed. Politics ain’t perfect. It’s a constant struggle. You win some, and you lose some. If the Disappointed Left isn’t able to see that they would win more with a President Obama than with a President McCain, then they’ll get the only president that they deserve.
Cross-posted from Facebook.
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Comment by David Boaz
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