digging beneath the surface

Here’s the WaPo with a surprisingly gritty piece analyzing Obama and detailing his changing positions. This stood out as particularly insightful [e.a.]:

Obama has shown himself to be not so much a “post-partisan” politician as a “post-polarizing” politician, projecting moderation in an era of political warfare, said Ross Baker, a political scientist and congressional scholar at Rutgers University. McCain, on the other hand, is the party scold — “sort of tilting at windmills” and putting a “guilt trip on the rest of us because we know he’s right,” said former Senate majority leader Trent Lott.

Plus there’s this, indicating that by “change you can believe in” the Obama camp meant change seen from a certain perspective:

“After eight years of ideology driving decision making, is pragmatism reform? Yes, it is,” said an Obama adviser in Chicago.

Oh dear, his image sure has taken some hits lately.