OBAMARAMA

American Prospect editor Michael Tomasky has a brilliant piece in today’s Los Angeles Times: “Obama the Anti-Bush.” He explains how in the past, the foremost predictor of a successful candidacy has been the ability to offer a narrative that responds to the negative aspects of the sitting president, managing to counter them somehow. Carter’s weakness spawned Reagan’s strength; Bush Sr.’s discomfort yielded Clinton’s charisma; Clinton’s recklessness created a desire for Bush Jr.’s integrity — or so we were supposed to believe.

And now, Tomasky argues (convincingly, too), Sen. Obama is the perfect foil to what we’ve come to know to be the real President Bush:

George W. Bush, to most voters, is no longer the man who restored honor and dignity to the White House. Nor is he — in another line from his 2000 campaign — a “uniter, not a divider.”He is now instead the stubborn, highly partisan unilateralist who doesn’t listen to others.

So what character type does this mean voters will be looking for in 2008? Someone who speaks of his frustration with our polarized politics and his fervent desire to transcend the red-blue divide.

Sound like anyone you know? I thought so.

Tomasky concludes:

Bush’s greatest flaw to the greatest number of voters has to do with his unrelenting partisanship. And this greatest flaw plays right into Obama’s greatest strength. He will have other opportunities to run, but it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever again have an opportunity quite like this one.

Read the rest here.