Only four years after serving as the keynote speaker at the Democratic Party convention in Boston, Barack Obama will be officially designated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver as the party's candidate for the United States presidency. The road traveled by one who in 2004 was but a candidate for an Illinois Senate seat is mind-boggling. By choosing this 46-year-old mixed-race man to attempt the conquest of the White House, Democratic voters did honor to their country as well as to the talent of this still young and inexperienced politician.

    Barack Obama's success owes much to the presidency of George Bush, reviled by Americans. The "Conservative Revolution" begun with Ronald Reagan close to thirty years ago has run out of gas. The "culture wars" going back to the 1960s between a libertarian left and a conservative right belong to an era that grows ever more remote. Economic crisis, the realization of environmental emergencies, the human and financial cost of the war in Iraq and the censure of Washington mores provoke a massive rejection of the Republican Party. Longing for change also partially explains how Hillary Clinton came to be leapfrogged in the Democratic primaries.

    Will the man who desires to be the bearer of "change you can believe in" keep his promise if elected November 4? To win this election, Mr. Obama shows himself ready to abandon or shade some of his strongest commitments. For example, he decided to forgo public financing for his campaign and the ceiling on spending that went along with it. Thus, he prepares to vote in the Senate for a proposed law that justifies the wiretaps authorized by Mr. Bush. He has amended his position on troop presence in Iraq and given assurances to pro-Israel organizations.

    His Republican adversary, John McCain, has also evolved in order to please a more conservative electorate. That's the law of the genus and one should not exaggerate the importance of these tactical gestures. But neither should one dream that politics ceases to be politics nor that one can win an election, in the United States or elsewhere, without being a realistic politician.

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    Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.