the left versus the patriotic middle

One of the things I like most about the interwebs is the comments, which are often more telling than bloggers’ posts and most of the output from the MSM. Like this comment, from Ezra Klein’s blog, which describes Obama’s potential appeal on the (way) Left Coast, Northern edition:

I live in Berkeley California, and many of my leftist friends repudiate the Democratic Party for the usual reasons: it serves wealth and power, it’s pro-military, controlled by lobbyists, etc. …

What I’m asking myself this morning is this: will my radical friends, some of whom have been sitting on their duffs for a decade or two or three, find inspiration in this renewal of the Democratic Party? Will they roll up their sleeves now and get to work?

A chance to really shift our country forward in a progressive direction may only come along a few times in a lifetime. This may be one of those times. I hope we’ll suspend our disbelief, during this election season at least, and join this new, grassroots social movement.

Note that this guy rejects the Democratic Party as a servant of American power but loves Barack Obama. What this says to me is that some folks are proudly reading Obama as laudably anti-military, anti-capitalist, and anti-democratic. (This falls in perfectly with Obama-as-Blank-Slate: people project onto him whatever they damn well please.)

I think these people are in for a surprise. But if Obama is the Democratic nominee, I think he may be in for an even ruder surprise. By repeatedly painting McCain as the past, Obama is going to look like even more of a punk than he does now, when he’s merely trying to overthrow the evil Clintons.

Some weeks ago, Andrew Stuttaford, writing on The Corner, said that if Obama is the Dems’ nominee, this will be an election about narrative, and that in that case, McCain is the only Republican who will be able to give Obama a run for his money.

I agree. If this is how the race shapes up (but I wouldn’t count Hillary out, though even steady-as-she-goes Engram is wavering at this point), it will be a feast for those of us who love stories with an unpredictable ending.

The conflict is this: All Hat No Cattle versus All Cattle No Hat.

You all know Obama’s strengths. Here are some things you may not have thought of when it comes to John McCain.

McCain is the living symbol of grit, determination, decency, self-sacrifice, and honor in the face of utter and complete hopelessless. He can milk this, but he won’t; his surrogates will do it for him.

McCain’s son Jimmy, a Marine, just got back from Iraq. That ought to be good for a few votes and, even more important, lots of credible first-person testimony about conditions on the ground in Iraq.

John McCain is also the author of many books about the honor of serving one’s country:

Faith of My Fathers : A Family Memoir by John McCain and Mark Salter (Paperback - Aug 22, 2000)

Worth the Fighting for: A Memoir by John S. McCain and Mark Salter (Hardcover - Sep 24, 2002)

Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember (Modern Library Classics) by John Mccain and Mark Salter (Paperback - Aug 7, 2007)

update: Jonathan Martin, writing at The Politico, makes much the same point:

they’ve been slow out of the blocks in recognizing another danger zone.

“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country,” Michelle Obama said Monday in Madison, Wis.

By that evening, the quote was the top headline on the Drudge Report and quickly found its way onto conservative blogs.

Yesterday afternoon on his influential radio show, Rush Limbaugh played the clip and then lit into both Obama’s.

“Doesn’t it just grate on you that liberals in general are not proud of their country, period?” Limbaugh asked.

By last night, the conservative commentators on Fox News were in high dudgeon over her comments, repeating them over and over before lambasting her and predicting they would be used against the candidate this fall.