Thanks to BLOGS FOR VICTORY

A Clear Choice in 2008

Yep:

I think what we are watching in the Democratic primary is historic. First, there has not been a candidate nominated for President more liberal than Barack Obama since George McGovern — not Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, or Kerry. This is unapologetic liberalism in the classic European-socialist sense, and for the first time in many years we will see its envisioned agendas without Clintonian trimming or apologetics — the flip side of the purist Goldwater in 1964. Obama will put the best face on this ultra-liberalism and the voters can freely decide. A real cut-and-dry choice.

Second, I don’t think there has been this much acrimony for so long in a Democratic primary since the Humphrey campaign of 1968, much more venom than Kennedy-Carter in 1980 or Hart-Mondale in 1984. But more importantly, the fault-line this time is not ideological so much as personal, with ugly undertones that will be hard to heal, given there can’t be horse-trading over policies. In the end, the Clintons are livid that the upstart Obama cut in front of the line and destroyed what was otherwise a near-decade long carefully planned and scripted return to power until 2016.

Our liberal friends are already convinced that they’ve won in November by a massive landslide – this is because liberals live in a dream world entirely divorced from reality (and in a really ironic twist, they call themselves the “reality based community”); but be that as it may, in a McCain/Obama contest, the battle will be between liberalism and conservatism in very stark terms. Ever since Dukakis was creamed in 1988 mostly due to the fact of his liberalism, Democrats have shied away from that label, but Obama is embracing it (though not, of course, actually spelling out what his liberal policies will entail) – and liberals are convinced that America has turned left, and are ready for an unabashedly liberal President and government. We shall see – so far, when we battle between liberalism and conservatism, the record is Conservatism 6-1…will 2008 make it 6-2? So far, only Goldwater failed to convert the battle of conservatism vs liberalism into victory for conservatism…but that was back in 1964, before liberalism poisoned itself with “new left” ideology from 1968 forward.