Obama Ticks Off The Times

A non-player of "the old political games" can't give an inch -- not on the Times' showing. Never mind that American voters at large aren't half (thank you, Lord) as left wing as the Times' editorial writers.

The left, after disposing of John McCain and as many Republican congressmen and senators as possible, means to romp as it hasn't romped at least since the Great Society, maybe even the New Deal. It means to get out of Iraq faster than you can say "al-Qaeda" -- with none of the hesitation Obama is presently showing ignoring the on-the-ground assessments of American generals. The left aims at national health care. It has no time for evangelicals or churches. It wants activist federal judges of the sort who are loath, in terrorism cases, to balance civil liberties with some respect for national security. The left wants steeper taxes on wealth and no more offshore oil drilling.

Will all this come to pass? Maybe not, if the Democratic presidential candidate can't be trusted to build occasional coalitions near the political center, where voters honor guns and religion more than they despise waterboarding and oil companies. What we're seeing is evidence that some necessary accommodations won't be easy to bring off, because whenever they're attempted Democratic alarm bells go off and the New York Times undertakes to lecture the Senate's most liberal member: Obama.

Victims stung by the Purist Bug in politics sometimes don't understand when they're well off -- which, from John McCain's standpoint, looks right now like a rich blessing.