When Obama leaves the echo chamber

Daniel Henninger:

...

John McCain is not bound by the rules of the Democratic primaries. He has an option not available to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich: Pull away the curtain of eloquence, and what the politics of Barack Obama reveal is a very standard liberal, at best.

His stated view of how to relieve the plight of young black men in failing school is what the teachers unions have had on offer for 20 years.

In July 2007 remarks on selecting judges, reprinted yesterday in the New York Times, Obama conveyed a philosophy grounded in a remarkably explicit obsession with class and incomes.

To the entitlement bombs of Social Security and Medicare, he would add expansions of Medicaid and subsidies to some businesses for health-care costs.

His desire to raise the cap on Social Security taxes will hit the $100,000 two-income families who applauded Hillary's appeal on college debt.

My friends, Sen. Obama is very eloquent, but he is also going to be very, very expensive. It may turn out that an angry, inflation-pressed America just wants to vote for an aura. Feel free, so to speak. John McCain's job will be to explain the price of voting for eloquence.

...


His trumpet is starting to lose its certainty as he gets into a debate framed by McCain. The challenge this week to go to Iraq has led to a question about why he is willing to talk with Ahmadinejad but not Gen. Petraeus or returning veterans who support the war. A guy who is afraid to talk to those who want to win is not showing the courage to be commander in chief.

The fact is that Obama has been willfully ignorant about the war since 2003. He wants to run a 2008 war on a 2003 policy. That is not leadership. It is not even the real world. It is the MoveOn world that want move on.

Add this to his orthodox liberalism in a new package and he will be severely tested in the coming months.

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