Bob Herbert says this isn't the Obama he thought he knew

Let’s start off by acknowledging that Bob Herbert is as likely to vote against Barack Obama as … Michelle Obama.  However, the bloom has definitely fallen off of the rose with the New York Times columnist, and he argues that Obama may have taken his supporters on the Left too much for granted.  Obama has squandered his exceptionality in a series of zig-zags, Herbert writes, and what’s left without that exceptionality?

Only an idiot would think or hope that a politician going through the crucible of a presidential campaign could hold fast to every position, steer clear of the stumbling blocks of nuance and never make a mistake. But Barack Obama went out of his way to create the impression that he was a new kind of political leader — more honest, less cynical and less relentlessly calculating than most.

You would be able to listen to him without worrying about what the meaning of “is” is.

In other words, he was the progressive anti-Clinton, which explains a lot about his surprising victory over Hillary Clinton.  Unfortunately, as Herbert and the rest of the nation has discovered, he’s actually Clinton squared:

But Senator Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash.

In other words, he’s not just becoming another old-style politician — he’s another old-style politician with no experience and little grasp of the major issues the nation faces.  During the primaries, he asked America to consider his judgment instead of his opponents’ experience, but then stumbled through a series of gaffes to an unenthusiastic finish in the primaries.  Now he has started discarding the positions that demonstrated his supposedly superior judgment.  What’s left except a thirst for power?

Of course, this will have little effect on his true believers. Or will it?  Herbert wonders:

There has been a reluctance among blacks to openly criticize Senator Obama, the first black candidate with a real shot at the presidency. But behind the scenes, there is discontent among African-Americans, as well, over Mr. Obama’s move away from progressive issues, including his support of the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the constitutional right of individuals to bear arms.

Like Herbert, it seems inconceivable that a significant number of black voters would pull the lever for John McCain over Barack Obama.  A lessening of enthusiasm might create a large problem, though.  African-American voters traditionally turn out in much larger numbers than the general population, usually 70% or better.  That will probably go up this year, but if it doesn’t, Obama may find himself struggling to keep pace with McCain.

Even if Herbert isn’t ready to throw Obama under the bus, the disillusionment is clear.  If a true believer like Herbert feels this way, the centrists and independents who saw Obama as a post-partisan model of New Politics may feel the disillusionment even more.  He’s not the New Politician they think he was — and without that, he’s a greenhorn with no executive or military experience who wants to lead a nation at war.