no its a let down, he doesn't take em on. its like any other interview.

both sides talk HUGE game before, but during the interview they are on their best behavior.  I think I was hoping he would go at him like Clinton did, but that didn't happen.

I guess Obama can't have himself coming out of the interview looking "angry"

I cannot vote for him. He should honour the last Democrat to be President. Same if he bashes the Clintons, belittles their victories, plays the race card against them.

Not having drunken a silo of Obama koolaid, I'm pretty confident that it's an accurate take by Wallace.

If that's not partisan antipathy, I don't know what is.

Though I would think that most Obama supporters would not appreciate the kool-aid comment as it has very negative connotations, maybe you could say 'having never bought the Obama hype' that still shows your not liking his campaign but doesn't insult those that do support him.

i for one am glad Obama took this tone with fox.  To win in the GE a candidate needs every vote they can get and if Obama can get a few votes by going on Chris Wallace (who has some journalistic qualities unlike Bill O'Reilly) then more power too him.  Bill had the benefit of being out of office when he took on FNC.

This should be interesting. I've always had a feeling that on social and some economic issues, Obama is not as progressive as Hillary. (Thus why I chose to support her, along with a myraid of other reasons).

This is basically Obama kicking the 'dailykos-americablog-moveon-the-nation' secular warrior partisans out of the way to make room for the pivot to the center.

I resemble that remark, since I spend time both here and on DKos (which, BTW, I consider a much better site in SO many ways).

What this is is obvious. Obama is now the presumptive nominee. He doesn't need to debate Hillary. He needs to debate McCain. He also needs to remind people that it is he who will expand our majority by convincing some Fox News viewers, many of whom are in older demographics that he's the right candidate. That much is effective in both the remaining primary states and the general election.

As for your snide DKos comments. Many of us have suggested that this is EXACTLY what Sen. Obama needs to do at this point.

Obama doesn't need the liberal vote anymore, the rest of the primary schedule is in conservative states. Philly was the last large city.

So while he does have the GE in sight, he is also trying to survive the  remaining primaries as well.

...just when we thought the Sen Obama support blogs had won our hearts and minds :-)

The strategy reflects a deep-seated belief by Obama and his strategists that the way to win the GE will be to move toward the middle. Obama's went a round-about way of securing the hardcore partisan base that he would need to win the secure the nomination. His post-PA strategy assumes he's got it in the bag, and its time to make the move to the general.

This is absolutely backwards. Obama will be the only Democrat who ran slightly to the right in the primary, and will run to the left in the general.

He will be the nominee, the presumptive leader of the party, so he will be able to run on all Democratic issues with no sniping from his own party. Running a firmly "liberal" campaign on Iraq, the recession, and the disgust at the prospect of a third Bush term will allow him to contrast himself with McCain perfectly. And those three overarching issues will keep independents and even moderate Republicans with him.

I agree his hopeful message has slipped. But as the sole Democrat in the race, he will reenergize that base, register millions more Democrats, and  most of the bile will drop away. He will be an even stronger Democrat after this primary.

Why that last paragraph, Jerome? Why?

It didn't add, in fact, it just subtracts from the rest of the post. I went in reading "oh how interesting" and by the end I'm shaking my fist in the air, roaring "Jah-roooOOOME!!!"

I mean, usually proof that the hull of the Clinton Kool Aid Valdez split on the rocky shores of your brain, covering all the seals of logic and gulls of trenchant commentary with thick, crude partisanship is the writing of paragraphs like that!

Don't harsh the mellow! We've got at least a few more days before we're all bitter/inspired Hoosiers. Why not save the vinegar for a rainy day? At least not for a total dog-bites-man story as this.

What? Obama is going on Fox News after lots of publicity-making drama which helped him in the primary; now his return will generate publicity to help him in with more conservative voting blocks, which he needs in Indiana and Oregon? Unheard of! And look, gambling going on in this establishment! Claude Rains is shocked, SHOCKED!

Meanwhile, suspiciously, Hillary refrains from slamming a shot or shooting ducks during a Wellesley alumni meeting. It's as if they're politicians of some kind, campaigning for some kind of national office.

idea of the "middle" either but believes that certain things aren't right-left-middle just right-wrong.

  What lovely commentary I can read on this blog.  I can see why Bowers and Stoller left.  LOLZ - OBAMA supporters drink the Kool-Aid!  Self-parody.  It might help if the front-pagers followed the rules of their own blog.

In two weeks time, I have been reading from Hillary supporters that Obama is too conservative...then too liberal...and now back to conservative.  Can you guys just pick one and stick to it?

proving that he not only hates Obama but he hates anyone who chooses to support him as well... or at least that is how it feels to me with the comments such as "Obama Kool Aid" and such.

What gets me most about this is that many people on both sides of this fight have co-opted a very Bush-esque strategy of suggesting those who don't agree with them are somehow less than they are.

Well, glad to have that cleared up.

paul rosenberg puts this thing best. Check out his latest piece on the subject.

Other then that, I'll wait and see what occurred and make my rational opinion at that point. I'm not willing to take out the pitchfork and join the mob at this juncture.

Bingo!

That is good stuff Jerome.

Looks like this move is late but had to be done.

That's understandable since you've been busy peddling Hillary koolaid from your little sidewalk stand here.

I doubt there are that many hardcore partisans, the ones that keep dreaming Obama's movement has anything to do with a fighting partisan position, will abandon him over this anytime soon, they've still got Clinton around to hate on.

Only a very small minority of Obama supporters do so because of hate for Clinton.

I did hear an interesting statistic from the exit polls, though.  Apparently 6% of Clinton's primary votes came from people who didn't intend to vote for her in the general if she makes it.

Looks like she's got some abandonment issues of her own...

and boy howdy is she ever worthy!!

Did he say he'd nuke the tar out of Iran.  I hope so.  That would make him look tough, and stuff.

First "." is a "?" of course.

I don't think he did say he would nuke Iran; he was too busy ducking the Iran vote when it came up.

So what is the Hillary equivalent?

that any critical analysis of your candidate is "Clinton Hate", while any of the number of misleading and downright gleeful posts bashing Obama is supposedly above the fray.

There are definitely silos ok koolaid being drunk, but you should a mirror Mr. Armstrong.

I hope that you will pledge to support the nominee in the general.

As a lefty/partisan/bloggy person, I have no problem with Obama appearing on Fox.

Many other commenters have noted that it's weird that you're taking anything Wallace says seriously, so I won't harp on it.

I will take issue with the idea that he's moving to the mythical "center." Yes, Obama's message of bipartisanship resonates with voters who see themselves as centrists or "moderate" Repubs/Dems...but it doesn't mean he's selling out liberals who believe in his policy proposals. And I think everyone understands that a good campaign is one that appeals to the greatest number of people...if you still manage to rev up your "base" while doing that (something Obama can take for granted), then you're running a really good campaign.

I suppose, physically, he's moving to the center by literally going to Fox News. But I don't think he's changing who he is or how he'll govern (a la McCain for the Repubs leading up to the 08 primary).

If I didn't know better, I might think that Jerome's suggestion that "the overt action is to distance from (maybe even piss off) the hardcores from the left enough that they stop co-opting the Obama brand" is a way to get lefty blog readers who so overwhelmingly support Obama to believe that he's selling them out.

I know this is common knowledge in terms of the GE...most candidates move there.  My problem is since Obama didn't go "left" at all in his positions, his movement toward the center may actually more toward the center right.  

It seems these days we have to ask for a mile to get one inch.  If we only ask for an inch, what have we gained?

I am not sure that there has been that much of a change in Senator Obama's support from  "from Church-attending voters, toward secular warrior voters".

From the beginning Clinton has been ahead of Obama in the Catholic vote (I wonder if that accounts for the New Hampshire 'surprise').

One of the reasons why Obama did not take a bigger hit from the Wright affair in the tracking polls could be that to many NON church attending voters Wright saying "God damn America" is not much different to all those clerics who say "We are all sinners" - "Sinners go to hell".

I can't quickly find an earlier break down but one based on Gallup Daily tracking polling conducted March 1-22, 2008 looking at Democratic voting preferences by religious affiliation shows that the groups in which Obama had the strongest lead over Hillary was first people of no religion and second non-Christian, non-Jewish.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/105595/Clinto n-Obama-Closely-Matched-Among-Jewish-Dem ocrats.aspx

"Not having drunken a silo of Obama koolaid!"

What did you drunk?

"Take them on" but what it really meant was "Appear on the show."   In the crazy world of Obama speak where up is down and right is left, it's perfectly consistent.  

"I'm pretty confident that it's an accurate take by Wallace"

Jerome's now trusting Fox News. And we're the ones drinking the kool-aid.

Another missive from the fantasy world of Jerome Armstrong. Projecting some kind of a strategy onto Barack without an iota of evidence to back it up. What about the 50-state voter registration strategy? How does that fit into your theory? Obama has been facing the middle from the left since the very beginning of his political career. He's trying to sell the progressive agenda to middle America by focusing on the underlying values and getting away from ideological dogmatism. He's also strengthening the base by focusing on motivating previously alienated voters. There's nothing new in any of that.

you do know that the kool-aid reference has roots in a suicide cult, right.  Could you please not use it as it is very offensive.

it would have been monumentally stupid for Obama to go on Fox news and do anything but an amicable interview especially given both conservatives and the Clinton camp have been hitting him hard on the twin issues of 'elistist/out of touch' and 'leftist liberal'.

Newsflash:  Many (most?) of those 'Reagan' Democrats that propelled Clinton to victory in PA watch Fox News regularly.