Worth reading, especially for those who feel concerned that Obama's compromises or nuanced views are tantamount to "sell-outs" or "flip-flops". Cesca is generally a thoughtful and self-examining blogger.

The main thrust of this article is the emotional writhing of a self confessed liberal over the recent “centrist maneuvers” of Obama. In the end, the writer’s consternation is assuaged by the unsupported rationalization that Obama will return to his liberal foundation once the election is won. Without debating the logic of this position, why should we be concerned about the reporters emotional flailing? It is likely that he is of the strain of liberal who will be wringing his hands about some irrational pessimism regardless.

A very good and acurate article. I keep comparing this election to the 1860 election when Abraham Lincoln won. In th election and as President he was blamed for both doing too much and not enough. Lincoln's strength was know how far and when the nation would move.

This personal viewpoint starts off slowly, but starts to raise some good points about halfway through. I've never agreed with a single politician on everything. All of them take stands on issues that do not align with mine. Liberals I know seem to have a tendency to fall in love with a candidate and convince themselves this will be the champion they have looked for. They are often disappointed--frequently because they simply did not pay attention to the actual candidate. Obama is not as liberal as the right would like you to believe or the left had hoped. I could have told you that months ago. It used to crack me up when I heard bloggers painting now-congressman Jerry McNerney as some great liberal. I knew Jerry and worked on ... More »

I have been so discouraged with Obama lately that my will to vote for him at all has been seriously chipped away. However, these two pieces below have helped bring some perspective to me. The first is from the Huffington Post and points out that even some liberal "icons" (like Kucinich) are not "right" on all issues all the time. And the second, an editorial from the NY Times, reminds us what a McCain victory would mean. I'm still discouraged, but a little of the value of pragmatism is returning.

Good journalism, but fails to reveal the deeper issue, which is that others besides Cesca are not going to be so forgiving of what they perceive as Obama's treachery.

A lot of us Obama supporters have been going through the same "grieving" process. No sooner did he bag the nomination, it seems, than he started moving to the right. The "different kind of politician" started to look less and less different in the process. Of course I understand what he's doing. He's trying to attract the so-called "Reagan Democrats" back to the Democratic Party. I'm not sure we want them back, but Obama certainly needs them, or at least needs to deny them to John McCain. So it's swallow hard time... grin and bear it.. stiff upper lips etc. November is just around the corner.

Okay, so let me get this straight. We are supposed to forget the “finer points i.e. what Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Rutledge, Madison, Paine, etc honed down to the essence of democracy and instead rely on somebody who just won’t embarrass us and somebody who wants to negotiate rather than dictate? How thin our sense of democracy has become. So for trying to make a silk purse out of sow's ear (rationalizing/weaseling out of his early choice), Cesca gets a C. For not having done his reporting homework in the first place, as a journalist he gets a D. Cesca should have checked out how Obama felt about these "finer points" of the core of liberalism as worked out with great personal cost by our framers. He might have discovered a ... More »

It's a personal examination of conscience, but it brings up points that are worth remembering for all.