The public is ready for a turn to the left, and Obama wants to give it them. Young people have abandoned the GOP in droves. As importantly, conservative policies and politics have been discredited for a generation or more, especially if some Democrat could unplug their brain from life-support long enough to just say so. Obama is saying so.
To be sure, there is much work to be done. And there is incredible damage – perhaps too much damage – to be undone. There are pitfalls ahead, and even if there weren’t, Barack Obama (probably) doesn’t have the politics of Paul Wellstone.
All that said, there is reason to be happy and hopeful. There is reason to believe that our forty long years in the desert are now mercifully coming to an end.
