Even as Barack Obama has attempted to project a moderate outlook on the presidential campaign trail, his leftist supporters have remained faithful to his cause. Naturally, Obama’s rock-solid radical resume – which Joshua Muravchik beautifully documented in the October issue of COMMENTARY – gives many of them ample reason to believe that he is merely playing politics when he promises to expand faith-based programs, opposes gay marriage, and speaks of reducing the abortion rate. Still, some of Obama’s far-left supporters are starting to wonder whether their candidate’s apparent turn to the center is a dark sign of things to come.

Indeed, we can already see the first chips in their confidence. Case in point: the insufferable Rachel Maddow, who interviewed reprimanded Obama on MSNBC last night:

MADDOW: Senator, you criticize the Bush administration frequently. But you almost never criticize the Republican Party itself. Other Democrats.

OBAMA: Much to your chagrin.

MADDOW: Well, yes, actually. I mean, other Democrats, you will hear them talk about the GOP as the party that’s been wrong on all the big stuff. Creating Social Security, civil rights, the war in Iraq. But you don’t really do that.

[…]

MADDOW: Now, they do not see you the same way. When they talk – when John McCain calls you a socialist.

OBAMA: Right.

MADDOW: … this redistribute the wealth idea. He calls you soft on national security.

OBAMA: Yes.

MADDOW: That’s not just an anti-Barack Obama script. That is-he’s reading from an anti-Democrat, and specifically an anti-liberal script.

OBAMA: Absolutely.

MADDOW: And so, you have the opportunity to say, John McCain, George Bush, you’re wrong. You also have the opportunity to say, conservatism has been bad for America. But you haven’t gone there either.

OBAMA: Yes, I tell you what, though, Rachel. You notice, I think we’re winning right now.

Two things become immediately clear from this exchange. First, Obama clearly anticipated Maddow’s frustration – which indicates that leftists’ frustration with their chosen son might be more pronounced than the MSM has been reporting. Second, Obama seems to realize that a leftist program is hardly a winning program, which suggests that political pragmatism might force him to govern from the center-left if he is elected.

This suggests a consolation prize for conservatives if Obama wins: before long, leftists will find themselves in a tizzy.