Salon: When a party flirts with suicide

[MADem]

14. Six of one, half dozen of the other. He's the guy. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deep in fantasy

land.

Obama is going to do what he needs to do to win, I don't worry about that. He hasn't spent the last four years contemplating his navel. Many probably won't like this, but he's going to appeal to the great mushy middle, the majority of America. He's going to focus on middle-class issues, jobs, affordable housing, college, access to medical care, that kind of bread-n-butter stuff. He will not tack left to win this thing because he doesn't have to. He won't tack right because he doesn't need to do that, either. He's going to steer right down the middle, he's going to listen to the people who actually have a history of showing up at the polls, and of course people are going to be pissed at him for that, but he wants to win, not make points with niche elements.

What he does in his last term, though? That's his legacy. Give him a Democratic Congress and who knows what he can get done? He will know that the clock is ticking, and he only has so much time--so he won't, if he is smart (and I suspect he is) be wasting the time he has.

He had a hippie grampa, a free spirit mother, and a sensible granny. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, even though he went to silver spoon schools. He got a good education thanks to his smarts, and I'll bet he knows, as well as a Kennedy, that to whom much is given much is also expected. I think he'll do the right things in his last term. I think he will do more than most expect, but even at that, for some, it will never be enough.