Conservative Eyes Opening

Charles Krauthammer follows up on a theme spelled out by David Brooks last week: Barack Obama is a normal politician, who makes the unseemly compromises that politicians often do, much the way a domesticated cat still kills birds. I can't decide if these columns represent genuine surprise (or maybe the confirmation of skepticism, at least in Krauthammer's case), or if it's part of a broader conservative critique of Obama. If it's the latter, I don't think a strategy of "Obama is not that special" has any legs. Swing voters now at stake won't be surprised that Obama is, in fact, a politician, and going after Obama in such a way opens McCain up to the same charge. Given that the country is leaning toward the Democrats, the sheen of political uniqueness is much more important for McCain.