Fred Barnes, apparently immune to the splendor of fireworks and the mass media swoon-in, explains precisely what Barack Obama did in the speech last night: he revealed himself to be a fraud.

On ideology, Obama has implored us to think of him as a bridge-builder and bipartisan. No radical wide-eyed liberal is he, we have been told over and over again. But the speech showed us the core of Obama’s philosophy: big government liberalism. Barnes writes:

With his acceptance speech last night, Obama has become a standard liberal politician who advocates the standard liberal agenda. Of course Obama makes the case for cleaning out the cupboard of liberal proposals–and enacting them–in an especially effective way. He is the most attractive and also the most clever spokesman liberalism has had in years. And he may get elected president.

But that was not the biggest of the unveilings. Republicans and the Clintons have long observed that Obama’s New Politics is pure hokum. He runs negative ads, he lies about his record and his opponent, he flip flops on issues of “principle” and he breaks promises (e.g. campaign financing). Last night he made that plain for all to see in the most personal and barbed attack on an opponent in any acceptance speech in recent memory. Barnes again:

But this isn’t what put his long-shot presidential candidacy on the map initially and thrilled so many young and idealistic voters. They rallied to his call for a fresh kind of politics that would essentially transcend the polarization and gridlock and interest groups of Washington. But there was none of that high-toned stuff in Obama’s speech or in the speeches of others who addressed the Democratic convention here. They were simply partisan. . . There’s nothing illegal or immoral or even unusual about most of this. It’s just politics at its most crass. Put another way, it’s exactly what Obama said he was determined to rise above. Now we know he isn’t who he said he was.

But will this all matter? If the New Politics and the appeal to moderation had stalled out perhaps this new persona will work better.

Anything is possible I suppose, but everything we know about American politics suggest otherwise. That speech, if nothing else, will galvanize the Republican base. As for Independents, it seems impropable that a far-left, partisan agenda would work in a general election. And it is even more unlikely that sneering at the temperament and judgment of McCain while hiding from debates is going to impress these voters.

It is as if Obama ran in the primary as Bill Richardson and emerged as Dennis Kucinich. Isn’t it supposed to be “Run left in the primary, to the center in the general”?

Needless to say, Obama has left McCain some running room. He has a whole swath of ideological turf in the middle to claim and a tone of moderation, calm, generosity and optimism to set. The poll numbers will no doubt look daunting for a bit, but opportunities are there if McCain can exploit them.