The American Spectator

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Obama's Romney Problem : /p>

"Obama has never had to run a general election campaign against a viable Republican in which his liberal views underwent scrutiny." Hasn't? This past perfect tense thus implies that this lack of scrutiny is over. Oh, Mr. Klein, you optimist. Yes, TAS will continue to take the junior senator from the great state of Illinois to task, and Fox may pipe up now and again, but "scrutiny" from the mainstream media?

p>Further, remember Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty, along with its related observer effect: the act of being observed changes the behavior of what is being observed. While Obama is not quite as slick as the Boy President (or as slick as he thinks he is), Obama has been able to charm, beguile, mesmerize, and con the American public for the last five months. He only has to do so for the next five to become the next POTUS. Scary. br> -- Ira M. Kessel br> Rochester, New York /p>

Mr. Klein poses an interesting thesis in his article. Now that the nominating process is over, both candidates will be forced to move to the center to attract independents and crossovers from the opposing party and hold some of the less ideological members of their respective parties.

In the list of Obama's policy changes outlined by Mr. Klein, I don't see anything that is likely to alienate his supporters. Will these changes ignite opposition to him among independents? Maybe, but I seriously doubt it. I don't think the majority of Americans make their political decisions by parsing candidates' policy positions at the level Mr. Klein described. I think Senator Obama's real problems are convincing people that he has the experience to be president and overcoming the racism that still exists in this country.

On the other hand, Mr. McCain's main problem is convincing independents that he too is independent and the candidate of change in spite of his 95 percent record of voting with the Bush administration. While the other 5 percent enrages some people, how many Americans could name the issues on which Senator McCain displayed his independence from the GOP? Maybe immigration.

p>I listened to Senator McCain's speech in Tenner, Louisiana. Eighty percent of what he said could have been delivered by a Democrat without a trace of irony. Seems to me that Senator McCain is moving perilously close to a position where Senator Obama could look at him and deliver the line that sank Romney's candidacy. At any rate, the real story of this election may be the impact of Bob Barr in Georgia and North Carolina. Nobody who follows politics will forget Ralph Nader's role in the 2000 election. br> -- Mike Roush

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