NYT columnist Bob Herbert manages the not inconsequential task of sighing like a weary Washington insider who’s seen everything while simultaneously weeping like a middle schooler jilted at the eighth grade dance over the realization that Barack Obama – the Man Who Came to Change Everything – might just be another politician:

(So) many of Senator Obama‚Äôs strongest supporters are uneasy, upset, dismayed and even angry at the candidate who is now emerging in the bright light of summer…

Senator Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash.

On a range of issues – Iraq, SCOTUS, FISA, even partnering with charities run by godbothering christers – Obama has moved (rhetorically at at least) from comfortably secure left/liberal certitudes towards the kinds of positions that might actually get him elected nationally by some portion of the other 70%. This, of course, is entirely contemptible in Herbert’s eyes.

Because people like Herbert aren’t looking for a political win, and all the benefits that come with that win once in office – they’re looking for personal vindication of their worldview. They want to be proven right, no matter what. Because that’s what’s most important.

Obama’s campaign should reach out to him in back channels and whisper that everything will be set right, come January. In the meantime, just lie back and think of national health care.