The Hot File

So, it looks like both candidates are having problems at the home base.  The Washington Post features a front page article today on conservative groups ramping up to do battle John McCain’s less than conservative platform before the convention.  The target: global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance reform. 

Meanwhile, Obama’s netroots base is still unhappy and still blogging.  Stirring up so much ire, that even Obamaniacs, the New York Times editorial page and Frank Rich, took on Obama’s screeching turn to the right last week. 

From Rich:

“For all the hyperventilation on the left about Mr. Obama’s rush to the center — some warranted, some not — what’s more alarming is how small-bore and defensive his campaign has become. Whether he’s reaffirming his long-held belief in faith-based programs or fudging his core convictions about government snooping, he is drifting away from the leadership he promised and into the focus-group-tested calculation patented by Mark Penn in his disastrous campaign for Hillary Clinton. Mr. Obama’s Wednesday address calling for renewed public service is unassailable in principle but inadequate to the daunting size of the serious American crisis at hand. The speech could have been — and has been — delivered by any candidate of either party in any election year since 1960.”

From the NYTimes Editorial Board:

“We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games. There are still vital differences between Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain on issues like the war in Iraq, taxes, health care and Supreme Court nominations. We don’t want any ‘redefining’ on these big questions. This country needs change it can believe in.”

Ouch.  So, now that the media darling’s honeymoon is over, where does Obama go from here?  Well, he gets back on firm foreign policy footing, redefining what and where the real war is and how to fight it. Hint: it rhymes with smishganistan