Rolling the Dice

Barack Obama, it is now clear, is gambling on a grown-up electorate.

He is gambling that people will see Hillary Clinton's gas-tax suspension as the Washington gimmick he says it is, rather than a nice bit of relief for hard-pressed working folks.

He is gambling that voters won't be distracted by his lack of a flag pin, false rumors about not pledging allegiance to the flag and other assaults on his patriotism.

He is gambling that Americans won't hold him accountable for the incendiary speech of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now that he's given an eloquent speech on race and cut ties with his former pastor.

And he is gambling, of course, that white voters will look past his race and elect an African American president.

It's a pretty big bet. But it's at the heart of the Obama candidacy.

In the past, of course, Democratic candidates have proven vulnerable to attacks based on their patriotism and their association with fringe characters. And Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry didn't have to deal with being black. Obama is a more natural politician than any of them, and he is hoping to redefine the parameters of presidential elections.

He has had to accommodate himself to some of the grubby rituals of politics. He went bowling, has taken to playing B-ball before the cameras and the other day announced he wanted a Bud. He no longer wants to come off as a brie-and-Chablis liberal, and hey, life is full of compromises.

We'll soon get another glimpse of how successful Obama has been in Indiana and North Carolina.

The New York Times questions whether Obama would be vulnerable to what happened in 1988:

"That year, the Republicans used the symbols of nationhood (notably, whether schoolchildren should be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance) to bludgeon the Democrats, challenge their patriotism and utterly redefine their nominee, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts."

But this is 2008, Joe Klein points out: