How Obama and McCain Would Lead

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McCain would find himself on a tightrope, surrounded by people trying to push him off. The last President to operate in such straitened circumstances was Richard Nixon. In 1969 he was inaugurated with a weak mandate, shaky popularity, a fractured party behind him and a Democratic majority on the Hill. Lurching left on domestic policy, veering right in his speeches, promising to end the war in Vietnam even as he escalated the bombing, Nixon infuriated his critics and confounded his allies. The roller coaster finally ended with his landslide re-election just as he was stepping off a cliff into disgrace.

A sad fact of contemporary politics is that we've lost the ability to get through a campaign without transforming honorable alternatives into cartoons of good and evil. Disagreement is out; denunciation is in. The distinctive tune of our day is hysteria with a drumbeat of hyperbole, all set in the key of bad faith.

Underneath, however, Americans still long for the mystic chords of memory strummed by the better angels of our nature — a patriotic harmony that we like to think is the song of our nation at its best. This is why the two candidates who fared best in this election were the ones who spoke most convincingly about bringing us together. When the two are finally narrowed to one, his mandate will be change, his timetable short and his environment stormy with division. At a historic moment desperate for a successful President, everything will hinge on one man's ability to navigate by the clouded star of common purpose.

See pictures of Obama's campaign behind the scenes.

See pictures of McCain's final push.