Barack Obama’s journey to redefinition is filled with potholes. The hand-wringing among those on the left (see this piece by Matt Stoller) is one such bump in the road. Then there’s the polling evidence. Rasmussen reported on Saturday that the presidential race, based on their tracking, is now tied. This all fits with David Broder’s thesis that Obama’s path to redefinition is confusing everyone from Republicans to independents to the presumptive Democratic candidate’s own supporters. Broder writes:
I’m convinced much of Obama’s support to date is more a function of the public’s curiosity with his narrative than support for his policies. Americans seem highly interested in this campaign but still uninformed about the candidates’ positions on many issues. The Washington Post‘s Jon Cohen underscores this point in his “Behind the Numbers” piece analyzing recent polling data. Voters will become more informed as the campaign unfolds, leaving Obama either looking like a “flip-flopper” or a doctrinaire liberal-neither of which will advance his travels to the Oval Office.
