Online NewsHour: Update | Obama Routs Clinton in South Carolina | January 26, 2008 | PBS

Online NewsHour: Update | Obama Routs Clinton in South Carolina | January 26, 2008 | PBS:

'We are up against the idea that it's acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election,' Obama said.

That's almost word-for-word what the late Paul Tsongas said about Bill Clinton during the 1992 Democratic primaries. From the New York Times archives:

Paul E. Tsongas unleashed his harshest attack yet tonight against Bill Clinton, assailing his Democratic rival as a "pander bear" who "will say anything, do anything to get votes."

We'd have a different world if Tsongas had won. At the least he would have helped us face the fact that Social Security and Medicare are unsustainable. The Concord Coalition strives, still, to spread his message.

Back to the present, and Obama:

'We know that this is exactly what's wrong with our politics; this is why people don't believe what their leaders say anymore; this is why they tune out. And this election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again.'