(US News) <!-- sphereit start -->This analysis was written by <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
ffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1
lace w:st="on">U.S.</st1lace></st1:country-region> News and World Report columnist Gloria Borger. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Idealism. For Obama, it's trickier. As he tries to tack to the middle--supporting, for instance, the congressional overhaul of the domestic spying law--his liberal pals fret. And what about those ardent declarations during the hotly contested primaries in battleground and rust belt states that trade agreements like NAFTA were "devastating"? That was then. The rhetoric may have gotten a tad "overheated and amplified," he recently told Fortune magazine. Recall that when Obama's economic adviser was charged with virtually saying the same thing during the heat of the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Ohio</st1lace></st1:State> primary, he became a pariah. Now it's clear that the adviser certainly understood his candidate. And suddenly, Obama's idealism seems a lot less about ideas and a lot more about winning. Telling the truth about what you really believe is a virtue, not a fault. But the real danger here is that Obama will morph into someone who looks as if he doesn't believe in anything other than his own success.
<R>Of course, a certain amount of pander, and shifting, is to be expected in a general election campaign in which candidates try to become all-purpose vessels. Yet, in this campaign, it's not been so easy. The two candidates have told us they're above all that, and anything they do to crack their truth-telling templates is risky. The last thing these "authentic" candidates want is for voters to ask: Is this the man I thought he was? Because once the question is asked, it's already answered.
I am shocked!
ffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">U.S.</st1lace></st1:country-region> News and World Report columnist Gloria Borger. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><HR align=center width="50%" color=#cccccc noShade SIZE=1>
lace w:st="on">Ohio</st1lace></st1:State> primary, he became a pariah. Now it's clear that the adviser certainly understood his candidate. And suddenly, Obama's idealism seems a lot less about ideas and a lot more about winning. Telling the truth about what you really believe is a virtue, not a fault. But the real danger here is that Obama will morph into someone who looks as if he doesn't believe in anything other than his own success. <R>Of course, a certain amount of pander, and shifting, is to be expected in a general election campaign in which candidates try to become all-purpose vessels. Yet, in this campaign, it's not been so easy. The two candidates have told us they're above all that, and anything they do to crack their truth-telling templates is risky. The last thing these "authentic" candidates want is for voters to ask: Is this the man I thought he was? Because once the question is asked, it's already answered.
I am shocked!
