Oleeb,

Thank you very much for that post. I signed it. Many people I respect very highly on that list.

recommended: this post and that letter.

Many TPM members oppose The Nation's open letter on the grounds that Obama should sometimes flip flop if the flip-flop helps him electorally, other words, he should follow the polls.

ok, i am going to ck it out..it concerns me a great deal that obama is doing this wobbling thingy....(whispered voice)

With all due respect, I think you should wait until January for this. Then you can safely push, campaign, cajole and encourage our newly elected leaders to remember who put them there.

This thing is not in the bag. The MSM and GOP are pushing hard to continue Bush III. And then all of your issues are dead in the water.

Otherwise you are wasting valuable time and energy NOT attacking the GOP and not helpign Democrats. We need to prioritize and be smart.

It may not be to see McCain be elected, but if Obama foolishly followed the letter's advice McCain's chances would improve.

Let me bring out my tired story once more. If any war in our history was evil (excluding the Spanish-American war or the war against the First Immigrants), it was the Vietnam War. I opposed that war strenuously.

When Humphrey won the 1968 presidential nomination against anti-war candidates, and when Humphrey did not go against Johnson in Johnson's support for that war, I resolved to be principled and not support the decent and honorable Humphrey. I voted for the Socialist candidate.

Enough people felt like me so that Nixon won a close election. Nixon proceeded to expand the war to other countries, to cause the deaths of twenty thousand or more American soldiers and half a million Vietnamese, and finally to end it much later than Humphrey would have ended it.

I helped to kill all those people and ruin our military by standing on principle. Since then I no longer think that I should request that worthy politicians always stand on a principle that might cause their defeat.

If you don't trust Obama, then he is not your candidate. If you do trust him, then don't pressure him until the election is over. It's that simple. Tree huggers need to see the forest.

If you actually read the letter

Add to your list of accomplishments: failed mind reader.

Of course I read the letter. Let's suppose that Obama follows its advice: "Stand firm on the principles you have so compellingly articulated, and you may succeed in bringing this country the change you've encouraged us to believe is possible."

§ Withdrawal from Iraq on a fixed timetable.

That's never been Obama's position so how can he stand on it? Withdrawal is conditioned by affairs on the ground. The word "fixed" is just waiting to be attacked, and rightly so. The goal is withdrawal of all but a residual force in sixteen months.

§ A response to the current economic crisis that reduces the gap between the rich and the rest of us through a more progressive financial and welfare system; public investment to create jobs and repair the country's collapsing infrastructure; fair trade policies; restoration of the freedom to organize unions; and meaningful government enforcement of labor laws and regulation of industry.

Unions are losing ground, and are totally unpopular in many of the new swing areas like Virginia and the mountain west. If Obama starts calling for "meaningful government enforcement of labor laws" he will lose support in those states. Now, let's play real for a moment: of course Obama is for enforcement, but why should he even mention it during the campaign? Don't you trust him? Has he backtracked somewhere on that principle? Some of the other items are ones he supports -- but not in green-or-yellow terms -- for no "principle" is completely iron-clad in all its complexity. For example, Obama doesn't totally support abortions in all cases. Would anyone agree to aborting a nine-month fetus, for example, if the mother decided that she didn't want another boy and claimed mental duress? (Extreme case.)

§ Reform of the drug laws that incarcerate hundreds of thousands who need help, not jail.

Can you hear McCain here saying, Obama wants to release all those criminals who corrupt our children with drugs in our inner cities (the race card)? This reform for adult users has to be coupled with a safer environment for our children -- including safety from random killings. This letter doesn't seem to realize that rights -- to medical treatment of drug abuse, to citizenship, etc. -- must be conjoined with responsibilities.

If Obama wants to backtrack on some of these absolute positions in order to win, I and most sensible supporters could weigh his decision and the specter of McCain quite easily and shut up about it.

My concern about 1968 is that self-righteousness, sometimes called principle, about politicians is juvenile. Recall the Kos backlash over FISA. Or the media horror over rejecting federal campaign financing.