THAT'S ALL THE ELECTION BOILS DOWN TO...:

The New Party (Thomas B. Edsall, 8/28/08, Huffington Post)

The nomination of Barack Obama will test whether the new Democratic coalition has grown strong enough to fend off Republican assaults to produce the first presidential victory for a non-Southern candidate in 44 years - and the first victory for a black in the history of the nation.

The Obama campaign has accelerated a transformation already underway in the Democratic electorate. 2008 appears likely to mark the death knell for what remained of the New Deal coalition - the coalition that was crucial to the early elections of such politicians as Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy.

In its place is a Democratic alliance that initially emerged during George McGovern's 1972 campaign, became competitive in the 1990s under Bill Clinton, and that now appears to be solidifying as the core of the party: a combination of "haves" -- socially liberal, well-educated whites, especially the young, and "have-nots" -- black and Hispanic minority voters.

...is can you turn the clock back 44 years to the sort of liberalism LBJ foisted on an unsuspecting nation, because of which he couldn't even run for re-election. Bill Clinton showed Democrats the way they could win -- by running as Republicans (New Democrats) -- but the true believers naturally want to give the Second Way (the Old Democrats) one last try, just like the Labourites who want to cleanse themselves of Blairism.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 28, 2008 5:21 PM