Chris Bowers Writes What I've Been Thinking...

...about Obama. Bowers (italics mine):

When John Kerry goes on a Sunday show and says that he's 'in awe' of John McCain's service, but feels free to undermine Wes Clark's, and the Obama campaign thinks of Kerry as their top surrogate, it's shameful. When John McCain's economic advisor calls America a nation of whiners, and we don't hear anything more about that in ads or anywhere else, it's shameful. When the Iraqi PM endorses Obama's call for withdrawal, and McCain still leads on the issue of Iraq by double-digits, it's shameful.

We all know that winning this election is not enough. It's just not. It's not even close. This is the most unpopular President we've ever had and our opponent is a crazy cancer-ridden dishonest madman. Our nominee should crush this guy. And if he doesn't, then next year, the Generals are going to come out and undermine Obama unless he pursues neoconservative policies, and he's not going to have set himself up for establishing civilian control of the military because he's continued the ridiculous tradition of criticism of our militaristic political system being off-limits....

If Obama wins, and I think he will, he will win like Jimmy Carter won. He'll win as an operational conservative, because that's what his campaign believes....

What's hard is standing up to powerful interests, starting with the Democratic consultant class which is begging everyone to worship McCain's military service and integrity. That is something the Obama campaign just isn't doing. It's never done it, that was always obvious. I hope they start, but I don't think they will.....I expect this article, if it's read at all, will be read inside the campaign with the same mixture of loathing and bitterness that characterizes all thin-skinned insiders who consider themselves liberal while acting like conservatives and resenting all feedback that does not comport with their message that they are running the most grassroots and inclusive campaign in history.

Let me be clear: Obama is vastly superior to McCain. Having said that, Obama's campaign is a mass movement, not a grassroots one, in that the communication--and decision-making--are unidirectional. I hope I'm wrong, but I think Obama is kidding himself if the movement to get him elected will continue after the election, having undercut the grassroots organizations that would naturally support him. That means he won't have a political base. This isn't far-fetched at all: the same exact thing has happened to Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts, who ran the same kind of 'change' campaign that Obama has. And now Patrick doesn't have a base of support.

Update: If you showed up from Orac's place, read this.