Moonage Political Webdream

Barack Obama’s having a rough week.

First, he did the very odd thing of stating very publicly he liked President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative so much he wanted to expand it.  That drew the ire of the Reverend Jesse Jackson:

“See, Barack’s been talking down to black people on this faith-based—,” Jackson says during a break in taping. “I want to cut his nuts out.”

Now, I don’t think the reverend was terribly upset that Obama wanted to expand the opportunities for religious social programs to do good, I think it was because he did the unthinkable and supported a wildly conservative President’s idea.  Luckily for Obama, people have focused more on his nuts and not on the fact that it was spoken by a wildly liberal, race baiting African American.  This is the core of Obama’s support ( wildly liberal, not necessarily African American ).

Then to further antagonize the wildliy liberal Russ Feingold offered this piece of advice for Obama:

I think it is a terrible piece of legislation. No Senator should vote for it, no Democrat should vote for it. It is one of the worst intrusions of personal rights of Americans in the history of this country, and I am hoping Senator Obama will be able to fix this monstrosity. No Democrat should vote for it.

To which Obama’s immediate reaction to Feingold was:

Now, even the ACLU condemned this piece of legislation.  So, we’ve got Rev. Jesse Jackson, ACLU, And Russ Feingold condemning Obama in about a week.  That’s pretty tough for any candidate.  Now, all of them have said they’re still hot for Obama.  But, it seems a little more shallow now than it did last week to me.  Even the wildly liberal DailyKos couldn’t find it in their soul to look for an upside to this.  He did however, remarkably find a way to blame it on Republicans and media.  ( Clue here Kos guys, Obama did the deed because he’s scared to death about an issue.  How often will he capitulate on other conservative issues like, oh, let’s say, Faith Based Initiatives? )

Bottom line, this has been a rather disastrous week for Obama.  Is he dead in the water?  No way.  He’s fresh, he’s enthusiastic, and he’s got Hollywood and main stream media completely in his pocket.  However, the more he panders to the issues he’s staked his career by opposing to this point, the less enthusiastic his core will become.  And, if he thinks by pandering to the conservatives will make them forget his previous history, he’ll learn a very powerful message in politics:  Convservative voters never forget.  Liberal voters generally tend to be a lot more flexible.  However, it was Bush’s pandering to the “center” early in his presidency that cost him his unfettered support of his core.  And, for the next eight years, he’s had only tepid support since.  It was only the incredibly inept candidacy of John Kerry that kept him in office.  The problem for Obama in my opinion, is John McCain is no John Kerry.

Technorati Tags: aclu, barack, bush, conservative, conservatives, dailykos, democrat, democrats, faith based initiative, feingold, FISA, jesse-jackson, john-kerry, legislation, liberal, liberals, mccain, nuts, obama, president, race, republican, republicans, Senate, vote

Tags: aclu, barack, bush, conservative, conservatives, dailykos, democrat, democrats, faith based initiative, feingold, FISA, jesse-jackson, john-kerry, legislation, liberal, liberals, mccain, nuts, obama, president, race, republican, republicans, Senate, vote

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