Obama is my Senator, so none of this surprises me, but it may others. When he ran for the Senate the knock on him was that he was much more liberal than people knew, and Republicans here in Illinois were actually looking forward to running against him. Then, the Republican candidate got caught up in a scandal and Obama effectively ran unopposed.

My biggest worry about an Obama Presidency is how it's liably to be such a leftist juggernaut.

Think about it. Every time anyone, anywhere opposes a policy that Obama supports, it's racism. Any time anyone objects to a Supreme Court nominee, it's racism. Any time anyone fisks a speech, it's racism.

Congressional Republicans don't have the backbone to resist being called racists, so I wouldn't count on them to provide much opposition to any of Obamas Audaciously Hopeful wealth redistribution schemes.

I'd rather vote for McCain. He'll still call me a racist, but the label won't stick very well if it's hurled by an old white guy.

Nihilism? Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, dude, at least it’s an ethos.

I'd like to thank Mr. Hutchinson for pointing all of this out for us.
Hopefully the Republican National Committee is also noticing.

I love the way all of the things that make him popular amung the far left are suddenly things that the Right might not like. Is that a sudden revelation for this guy? Or is he trying to tell the Obama-nation that they're sending up a far lefty so be prepared.

He barely has a record to stand on he might as well be proud of it.

The other point in all this is that Hutchinson makes no mention of what the Democrats will do - namely criticize McCain for all of his positions. Nor does he mention the real scandal of 2004, when Dan Rather displayed forged documents about Bush.

If the Republicans do it, it's bad.
If Democrats do it, it's okay.
Whatever the media does, it's good.

Is this guy supposed to be an Obama supporter? Sounds like he just made the case for voting Hillary.

I thought of making a lengthy argument on exactly this topic over in the alternet comments section. You have done it better, and I will link to it tonight from my own site.

I was struck by the same puzzling assertions in the article (and subsequent comment thread). It's not going to be pretty...the Republicans are going to bring out their dirty tricks...the Republican attack machine will go full bore...

The examples given of this were as you describe: Obama was going to be attacked on his voting record. But - and this is the key point - they were going to do it in a stern tone of voice, just like Dad used to do when you made excuses about why your grades were bad. And we all know how mean Dad was.

What could be worse than being mean? It's downright un-American!

What could be worse than being mean?

Being average?

Thank you Simon, I needed that---it's been a median sort of day....

nicely done, John. Very nicely done.

I think he is, as suggested above, just reminding a lot of people who seem to be very invested in Obamarama The Movie without knowing much about Sen. Obama that the Miracle On Ice nomination process is going to be nothing more than a warm, pleasant, and unreal memory once he walks out to face off against McCain, Limbaugh, and all the rest of the non-Democrat opposition.

Once again, facing the reasonable possibility that the could elect a Democrat president, the Democrats are going to select the MOST leftist, LEAST general-election-viable candidate they could find.

Fear of success?

Sort of reminds me of Bubba the other day lecturing some MSM talking head about how unfairly the Missus was being treated, mentioning as an example that some politicians were "opposing" her. Ooooh, say it ain't so, Bill! Is that even legal?

Stand by for another Teardrop Tsunami!

This is an issue too. -- Not just a pleasure trip. What do Democrats hope to gain from kissy kissy with murderous thugs?

What in the world are advisers to both Senators Obama and Clinton doing in Syria in the middle of a presidential campaign — and why are the two campaigns so unforthcoming about the details of the visits? The same week that a terrorist mastermind harbored by the Baathist regime in Damascus was assassinated by a car bomb, both one of Mr. Obama's foreign policy counselors, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a long-time critic of Israel, and one of Mrs. Clinton's national finance chairs, Hassan Nemazee, were meeting with President Assad.

I assume they are hoping Assad will throw them some crumbs, so they can announce "peace in our time." That this is probably a poor idea is evidenced by the fact that the news-media are keeping it under wraps as much as possible.

It's rather disingenuous to claim that the worry is going to come from attacks on "ISSUES" and "VOTING RECORDS." I think the larger point is he has gotten a free ride EVEN on legitimate avenues of attack. But the larger point is that the general election will revive the politics of personal destruction.

Ads such as the Tom Ford attack ad of '06 that had a breezy white woman seductively talking about how she met Ford at a playboy party. More attempts to stir up racial tensions -- probably falsely linking his middle name to the former Iraqi dictator, attempting to cast him as a radical muslim with stories about him attending madrassas.

And distortions of his voting record and personal history to paint a false but unfortunately compelling IMPRESSION of the candidate based on, at most, the extrapolation of half-truths that have nothing to do with reality.

This is what happened to John Kerry with the "Swift Boating" -- none of the men claiming to have 'served with John Kerry' bore witness to their version of the events, and the factual debate over what exactly happened to give John Kerry the silver star was less important than the IMPRESSION that painted him to have served dishonorably, attempting to neutralize him against a president who, by all standards, did everything he and his connections could so as NOT to serve. These aren't issues, and they are political venom.

No doubt, once Hillary does come down, Obama OUGHT to be prepared for the onslaught. And I actually think, he will be.

When I watch Obama in action with his vague notions of social justice denied combined with his veiled allusions to a nefarious wealthy class which schemes
to appropriate our due rewards, I don't think JFK, I think Adolf Hitler. Just listen to an Obama speech and substitute "The Jews" every time he says "Exxon Mobil" or "the corporations" and you'll see what I mean.

What, exactly, is unfair about talking about his record on actual VOTES??? What else should we judge him on? His charisma???

If Obama really did vote to deny medical treatment to BABIES!!! NOT FETUS'S!!! When they were born during abortions then he is TOAST and shame, shame on the Democrats for nominateing such an inhumane ideologue for president. ( I'd actually like to use much stronger language)

I read the original article as satire.