America will vote for center-leftists but not leftists. The mistake the democrats make is running leftists and trying to govern as a left party.
Obama is, if anything, a PRAGMATIC progressive and will govern that way; and that, in my opinion, is surely preferable to the idiologically-driven cackhanded incompetence of the conservative Republican incumbent. When the right screws up, the pragmatically progressive center-left deserves its fair shot
He's a realist (pragmatists are); so any one expecting radical leftism, be they supportive of or opposed to Obama is going to be disappointed. Obama would use the best, and most effective, means possible to achieve his political goals. This is just an opinion, of course, and it remains to be seen whether it holds true should he be elected
Right now I'm minded to say that either Obama or McCain would be an improvement on Bush; but I'm not reassured that McCain, who is keen to tell us all that he's a "conservative Republican" would mark a significant enough change of direction
Besides we are feeling the effects of the "credit crunch" this side of the Pond, the fault line of which orginated in a loss of confidence in the US sub-prime mortgage market; so understandably, I'm pretty cold on Bush, a conservative Republican. Nor am I fond of the extent to which America's moral standing has declined and see Obama as being the better bet to raise that standing back to where it belongs. Although this might sound a bit fawning, I can see a President Obama being the best US export since coca-cola 
. Forward through the 21st century I say 
Dave
^^^^^
I invite anyone here to prove that Obama is some radical leftist and not a pragmatic liberal. He is left of center but he is not immersed in ideology. This is where it helps that he is not from Washington,DC. Hopefully he reaches out to republicans and conservatives or else his presidency will become a failure like Bush's.
