The new Mr. Obama

Throughout the primary season, nearly all the media focused on the inevitability of Barack Obama. What they did not count on what that his trajectory would ultimately require him to accommodate some politics and policies they scorned.

This is change alright, and the New York Times editorial board doesn’t like it one bit. At least, not this writer.

First, he broke his promise to try to keep both major parties within public-financing limits for the general election. His team explained that, saying he had a grass-roots-based model and that while he was forgoing public money, he also was eschewing gold-plated fund-raisers. These days he’s on a high-roller hunt.

And he’s pulling them in, starting with billionaire George Soros. But the turnaround on public financing is just the beginning.

The new Barack Obama has abandoned his vow to filibuster an electronic wiretapping bill if it includes an immunity clause for telecommunications companies that amounts to a sanctioned cover-up of Mr. Bush’s unlawful eavesdropping after 9/11…

Now, he supports the immunity clause as part of what he calls a compromise but actually is a classic, cynical Washington deal that erodes the power of the special court, virtually eliminates “vigorous oversight” and allows more warrantless eavesdropping than ever.

And there’s more…

On top of these perplexing shifts in position, we find ourselves disagreeing powerfully with Mr. Obama on two other issues: the death penalty and gun control.

And more…

We were equally distressed by Mr. Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s barring the death penalty for crimes that do not involve murder.

Not to mention his embrace of faith-based initiatives, which the Times editorial does mention, but gets the church/state separation thing wrong (these initiatives don’t violate it, though that’s the card always played against it).

So it begins, the reality check in this campaign. As Mr. Obama gets more interesting in his evolution (finally he’s standing for some issues and not just on rhetoric), his liberal supporters get more worried about where he’s going with his agenda for change. The Times sternly reminds him that America wants change they can count on. But the Time might recall that beyond the elite quarters of Manhattan, there’s a lot of America out there, and they’re keeping count, too.