Opportunity, not realignment

Post #298,760 by malraux 11/2/08 9:46:22 AM Reply	Opportunity, not realignment http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20081102_The_American_Debate__Democratic_era_coming__Possibly_not.html 'Swing voters - the folks in the middle of the electorate - checked out Obama during the three presidential debates, and judged him to be of keen intellect and good temperament, at a crisis moment when both traits are required. In terms of intellect, Obama is widely viewed as the antithesis of Bush; in terms of temperament, he is widely viewed as the antithesis of John McCain. But just because Americans want something different, that doesn't mean that the nation is trending leftward; indeed, as top Obama strategist David Axelrod remarked in Newsweek the other day, "I think right now people are in a pragmatic mood, not an ideological mood." In other words, Obama is well-positioned to win not because of his liberal profile, but in spite of it.' Sounds about right. Regards, -scott <i>Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.</i>
Post #298,761 by Another Scott 11/2/08 10:20:10 AM Reply	One person's landslide is another's political realignment. Some of this is semantics. Nobody knows what the future holds, of course. And he makes a good point, similar to my comments earlier, that the country is fundamentally resistant to change (what some would call "conservative") unless forced by the real world to confront problems, but I think the odds are better than 50:50 that a political realignment is in the offing for the next couple of elections. Polman doesn't comment on the importance of redistricting - I think that may have a major effect on the composition of Congress in 2012 and later. (Recall that the Republicans' increases in Congress in the early 2000s was at least partly the result of the 2003 redistricting in Texas.) Even if Obama governs from what Polman regards as the center, it would be a dramatic change from Bush's approach. ;-) Time will tell, though. Cheers, Scott.
Post #298,765 by jay 11/2/08 10:58:16 AM Reply	Can't tell yet There is no way to know yet if this is a real realignment yet. The key part comes at the end of Obama's term, not the start. Do we get a Reagan, under whom the term of political discourse changed? Or a Clinton, who skated through on personal popularity and didn't fundamentally change politics in the country? Even if Obama gets a landslide victory and the Democrats get a unbreakable majority in Congress, they could easily blow it in four years. Jay

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