The liberal blogosphere was aflame today with new accusations that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) is trying to win the 2008 presidential election.

Suspicions about Sen. Obama’s true motives have been building over the past few weeks, but not until today have the bloggers called him out for betraying the Democratic Party’s losing tradition.

“Barack Obama seems to be making a very calculated attempt to win over 270 electoral votes,” wrote liberal blogger Carol Foyler at LibDemWatch.com, a blog read by a half-dozen other liberal bloggers. “He must be stopped.”

But those comments were not nearly as strident as those of Tracy Klugian, whose blog LoseOn.org has backed unsuccessful Democratic candidates since 2000.

“Increasingly, Barack Obama’s message is becoming more accessible, appealing, and yes, potentially successful,” he wrote. “Any Democrat who voted for Dukakis, Mondale or Kerry should regard this as a betrayal.”

You can read the rest of Andy’s post here.

This is some pretty funny stuff, in no small part because it’s somewhat true. Obama is taking several plays directly from previously successful Republican campaign play-books, and it’s interesting to watch as the GOP camp starts to complain about it. For example, the ruckus about Obama’s refusal to seek public financing has less to do with Obama’s credibility or his trustworthiness, and more to do with the fact that it puts the McCain campaign on the defensive. That’s a strange place to be for the GOP.

Obama has proven to be a shrewd candidate. He was able to forge a primary coalition that defeated one of the best Democratic machines ever created, and now he’s taking on the Republican machine. There’s no doubt that both candidates have their work cut out for them, but this is the first time in recent history that the Democrats appear to have a distinct edge going into the general election season.

For both candidates, the best running mate is Colin Powell, a former U.S. Army general and former secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, according to the survey, which was powered by an Affinnova algorithm it calls “evolutionary optimization.”

Apparently, the ongoing war in Iraq has not tarnished Powell’s credibility or his apparent trustworthiness. I’ve always admired Powell, and thought that he was thrown under the bus by the current administration in their run up to the Iraq war. It would be nice to see Powell back in a position from which he could help America regain some of its lost stature in the world community.

All of us realize that the mudslinging tactics once associated only with the crudest kinds of local politics now characterize virtually all campaigns and have stripped us of the most crucial component in our struggle to self-govern: access to abundant, accurate and relevant information about those who govern us and those who wish to replace those who do.

Project Vote Smart provides something they call a “Voter Self-Defense System” which can be used to investigate countless political claims made by candidates and public officials alike. The self-defense system provides voting records and biographical information for candidates, as well as
interest group ratings, public statements, information about campaign finances, and most interestingly, a “political courage test” which is a standardized questionnaire related to a candidate’s position on various important issues.

You can get to know them a little better through the Project Vote Smart introduction video:

Project Vote Smart is funded via donations, so if it looks like they’re doing something valuable, feel free to support to their effort.