I don't think the "Stevensonian" approach is doomed to failure. I think Antonio Villaraigosa's successful campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles was a prime example. He came across as the enlightened voice of reason, selling himself as a positive figure, a pragmatist and moderate. This contrasts with his previous campaign, which he lost to James Hahn, where Villaraigosa campaigned as a real street-fighter, as a progessive/liberal standard-bearer, and alienated the white voters of the Valley as well as the Black voters in the city. The parallel of a nonwhite politician selling a positive, warm message, achieving success in a diverse electorate, has often occurred to me while watching Obama.

This is a good analogy. Barack almost has to win one of the four early primary states. I spent time calling Iowa voters for the campaign. A lot of older white voters seem to see him as 'every mother's son', - thoughtful, sincere and (as one said) a 'nice young man.' To spoil that goodwill among voters in these ridiculous national debates would be foolish.

Also, Stevenson ran on the 'greater good' when the country was exhausted from WW2 and the electorate mainly wanted normalcy - an affordable home, good jobs, benefits and especially children. (Social gains in labor were made through collective bargaining, civil rights gained through the courts. Electoral politics played a lesss dominant role.) Today people are sick of single-issue politics and a legal system out of wack, and are more open to 'for the greater good' vision.

Obama should take three strategic issues and hammer them home. Instead of getting caught in semantical debates, he should lay out what the vision behind his Iraq and Iran stands is, link it up to his Pakistan question (Iraq is the wrong front) and offer a constructive system of carrying out foreign relations. His views are still within the mainstream; he has to get them out and defend them.

What this comparison ignores is that Villaraigosa was always and still is a street fighter at heart. His Stevensonian "transformation" was just a--prescient, successful--electoral gambit. Read what has been attributed to and said about him in the wake of the Salinas scandal. He's still got a machine-politician's facile ability to manipulate public sentiment and wheel-and-deal.