Democrats have lost faith in Obama's political invulnerability

Obama’s Collapsing Base


By Daniel Greenfield
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

In a single year Obama lost the support of independent voters and liberal Republicans by passing the left’s agenda. And this year, he is well on the way to losing the support of the left for not passing enough of their agenda. Being too left wing for mainstream America, and too mainstream for the left is not a new problem for the Democratic party. It’s a problem they’ve faced since what had been the counterculture became the party establishment. But it’s a special problem for the man who rose to power as the poster child of the left. Barack Hussein Obama.

2008 was the left’s big moment. Its chance to seize control of the Democrat party and through it, all of America. The progressive radicalization of liberalism had allowed the left to mainstream its ideas within the party.The 8 years of the Bush Administration had also allowed the left to be in the vanguard of the opposition, which through their grass roots organizations, funded by the likes of Soros, they made sure to translate into also being in the vanguard of the party as a whole. Taking down Hillary, who had been positioning herself as a conservative Democrat, was Job 1. Picking the horse to ride to the White House was Job 2.

The main two contenders were John Edwards and Barack Obama. Initially, Edwards looked like the better candidate to sell America on the left’s agenda by wrapping it up in the sugary rhetoric of compassion with some obligatory JFK New Frontier homages. But to many, Edwards seemed like yet another version of Bill Clinton, a Southern Democrat who spoke the progressive language, but had enough realpolitik to draw the line at his own political welfare. And as it turned out, Edwards shared yet another of Clinton’s proclivities which made him politically unsuitable. Obama was a bigger risk, but he came with “deep backingâ€