The Fourth Amendment died today.

Whew. It's stuff like this that makes me glad I didn't participate in the Democratic primary, because choosing between Clinton and Obama isn't a choice at all. But, Clinton did vote against the FISA Bill. It helps build her liberal creds. It makes me wonder if they agreed on this beforehand, in case Obama loses the presidency. It makes me wonder if this is what they talked about, to avoid both of them seeming too closely aligned.

I do wonder what Obama will do with the visibility gained from this--he clearly knew that this was the heart of the progressive movements--has he stabbed it? It clearly hurt many libertarians, liberals, and privacy advocates. It is a Bush legacy that they would love to erase.

Why betray them on this and now, before he even won the election? Has he turned tone-deaf? Has he lost his gift of being attuned to voters' needs?

A scenario I'm seeing is that the libertarians will be angry and a great number of them will go for Bob Barr, making Alaska competitive.

Another scenario is that Obama avoids having the label "liberal" sticking to him. They want to use his voting records against him. This very visible stance (that some call capitulation to Bush) accomplished three things: He is not an ideologue; he is tough against his own allies; he can make a decision that polarize people, possibly neutralizing the hundreds of "present" votes he made in Illinois.

It could be to the Republicans' perils to point this out repeatedly, because saying that he's slippery like Bill Clinton may remind some voters--wasn't the Clinton years the good years?

I wonder why he capitulated.