For a year and a half, Barack Obama campaigned as a progressive candidate for President. For all that time, Obama had a significant lead over John McCain in the polls.
Then came this Summer of Disappointment. Barack Obama supported the death penalty, handguns in big cities, Big Brother government spying against Americans, offshore drilling for crude oil, and expanding Bush’s faith-based initiatives. Obama pandered to right wing evangelicals at the Saddleback Church with dishonest “cone of silence” preacher Rick Warren. Obama began courting an almost exclusively right-wing, pro-war group of Democrats as contenders for his running mate slot.
Barack Obama’s standing in the polls has gotten worse as the summer has progressed. In some polls, Obama and John McCain are dead even. In one poll, John McCain is actually ahead.
Now, some mainstream media pundits are saying that Barack Obama is suffering because of attacks against him by the McCain campaign. However, Barack Obama has been the target of nasty attacks for well over a year now. Those attacks didn’t hurt Obama at the polls before, and I don’t believe that they’re what’s hurting Obama now.
The popularity of Barack Obama is diminishing because Barack Obama, who had previously been consistent in his pledges to end the policies of George W. Bush, has begun to break his promises. For Obama’s Democratic base, Obama’s new support for the Bush agenda feels like a betrayal. For Republicans and independent voters, Obama’s shift to oppose progressive values looks like a flip flop.
From this poorly calculated change of character, Barack Obama gains no new support, but he loses a significant portion of his original supporters. If Obama continues this poorly advised move to the right with the pick of a right wing Democratic VP, look for a small convention bounce, followed by a continued drop in the polls in September.
If Barack Obama had only waged an honest progressive campaign, the election would have been in the bag for him. As it is, Barack Obama’s betrayal of his supporters is on the brink of giving John McCain a victory that should never have been possible. If Obama loses, he will have no one but himself to blame.
Yeah, it’s disconcerting but almost expected.
The Dimocrats can FIND a way to fuck up an election. So here’s to the demise of the United States as a super power as we finish the Bush transition to a third world country (that’s right – we’re now a STUPID power, complete with graft and corruption totally out of control). Expect the economy to worsen ESPECIALLY for the once middle class as the dollar falls to peso value, major banks close due to the mortgage meltdown and other shenanigans, fuel prices become unaffordable, health care dries up and massive lay-offs put most people in the poor-house. Watch for all the attendent craziness as a majority of the well-armed poor begin revolting in earnest. i predict it’s gonna get real ugly in 2009, NO MATTER WHO WINS THE ELECTION, but it’ll be far worse if McCain wins.
The latest Zogby poll backs you up, Peregrin. Support for Obama down 12% among young people, down 11% among college graduates. These are the people who are most likely to be progressive. These are the people being disappointed by Barack Obama’s shifts. Will Barack Obama get it?
Oh, and you might enjoy this. (From here.)