OBAMA AND THE NUTROOTS - AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  The AP, which at times has had a passionate romance with the current president, gives us today a surprisingly sober analysis of Mr. Obama's problems with his left wing, and the Democratic Party's splintering on national security.

At one time, in the forties, fifties, and early sixties, the Democratic Party was a national-security stalwart, often nudging isolationist Republicans and taking the actions, like the formation of NATO and the decision to resist Communist aggression in Korea, that defined our stance in the Cold War.  In 1960, John F. Kennedy actually ran to the right of Richard M. Nixon on national defense.

Ah, those were the days.  Vietnam changed that, and changed the Democratic Party:

Democrats just can't seem to get on the same page on national security -- and it could cost them dearly on an issue Republicans have dominated for decades.

Increasingly, President Barack Obama and Democrats who run Congress are being pulled between the competing interests of party liberals and the rest of the country on Bush-era wartime matters of torture, detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

And...

As Democrats splintered, Republicans watched with glee.

The irony is these are the same wartime issues created by Bush and the GOP-led Congress that Democrats successfully campaigned against in 2006 and 2008. The conflicting Democratic positions threaten to undercut the party's gains on national security; polls last fall showed Democrats had drawn even on national security issues long dominated by the GOP.

And...

Obama is facing the same predicament that confronted and confounded other recent Democratic presidents. While governing as centrists, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter bent over backward on issues of war and peace, working to appease the party's left wing without being held hostage by it.

Yeah, we noticed.  We're still paying the price for both of them, and maybe moderate Democrats have started to notice.

Answering liberal complaints, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: ''First and foremost, the president does what is in the best security interest of the United States.''

Obama is betting that liberals will forgive him for changing course on these issues. He does have several years to make it up to them before his likely re-election campaign.

Today's brand of liberal never forgives.  Never.  I saw what the left did to Hubert Humphrey in 1968, insuring the election of Nixon.  The only thing Obama has going for him with this crowd is race.  They will be reluctant to take on "the first."

But we can also ask, legitimately, whether Obama has the spine to continue taking actions, like maintaining military tribunals, that infuriate his leftist base, especially the California House delegation.  On that question may determine his presidency.

May 16, 2009