Dems' Dream Ticket Becoming a Nightmare

This is a little late, but I think Rich Lowry's column from last week, "Hope Against Hope," is still worth reading.

"Democrats lost the past two presidential elections by nominating candidates who had trouble connecting with down-scale white voters. They are about to do the same, but with their eyes wide open."

"Among traditional Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, Clinton racked up numbers as if she had been running against an obscure alderman instead of the most lavishly financed primary candidate in America history, sporting slavish press coverage."

"Obama’s candidacy depends on a kind of make-believe that can’t be sustained....There nonetheless appears no way out, even if Democrats wanted one....Democrats are left to hope against hope that Obama can again become the miraculously unifying figure he seemed in February: 'Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief.'"

Will Algore descend from the rafters at the convention like a deus ex machina and snatch victory from the mouth of defeat?

When you believe in progress and in the inherent trustworthiness of the modern state to solve all human problems, you leave yourself especially vulnerable to the temptations of political messianism, which is inherently deceptive, illusory. It invites self-deception, "a kind of make-believe that can’t be sustained." Especially in the primary season, we're all subject to this. At first, if a candidate has promise, you are inclined to see what you hope he is, not the bag of virtues and vices that he is. I went through this with Fred Thompson. As far as John McCain is concerned, I'm sober, and I explain that sober reserve in "McCain's Classical Republic." The Democrats have been sobering up recently, but in the process they may wake up to discover they they cannot escape the marriage they entered into while on their high.