The Great Shift Begins

I link to this article by David Broder not because of its content, which is largely unobjectionable, but because of what it represents. It's the first substantial article I've seen in the traditional media that treats the Obama campaign in a manner that does not reflect the usual Republican framing--Obama is elitist, his campaign is either naifs or thugs, all that crap. And the fact that its author is Broder, "dean of the DC press corps," is significant.

What I think it means, and why I use the term "the great shift," is that the Beltway elite is coming to terms with the possibility of an Obama victory and is beginning to hedge its bets. Count on it, if Obama wins, people like Broder will do their best to convince us that they never liked Bush and were always secretly against him. But what it really means is that proximity to power is the only thing they care about, and they always want to stand beside the winner no matter what. And having actual principles that you care about is only for the little people.