“These people are not by any means wicked or unjust or venal–some of the guests at the party had performed significant public service in one way or another. Many of them were Democrats who will vote for Obama. But I am sure that if you took a poll and asked them whether Obama could really change Washington-could really close loopholes on energy companies and raise taxes on the rich, reform the health-care system and significantly scale back the ill effects of global warming, substantially improve public schools or get us out of Iraq anytime soon–the answer would have been no, probably not. These ‘realists’ might even want such changes, or most of them. But they know how Washington works…

“I agree with them; I am part of that Washington world as a journalist and I have low expectations that any politician, no matter how gifted, can change it in a significant way. At the same time, standing in the press gallery on the floor of that arena in Detroit, I was moved by Obama’s ability to rouse and give hope to so many people who really seem to believe he can achieve the change he talks about. There is a disconnect here, and I don’t see what’s going to change it. Obama is a shrewd and realistic person, as far as I can tell. I wonder what he really thinks.”

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“In sum, Barack Obama’s record, judgment and message are at best entirely undistinguished in the field of presidential politics. At worst, we have Axelrod’s campaign of personality attracting a cult of followers so creepy that even many Obama backers are put off by it, to a man who admits he is a ‘blank screen,’ with a message that is either illusory or tyrannical. It is in those people that I find little to admire.”