Here’s the thing—Barack Obama’s all the rage. Not the GOP, not the Nader debaters, not even the doomsayers of Recreate 68 can take the shine off this star. He’s coming to town and with him his ideology of “change” we can believe in. I know because the media are all squawking about it. I know because stores throughout my Capitol Hill neighborhood are brimming with Obamamania headgear, “change” underwear, and Barack onesies. I know because I can’t walk down the quad without one of those CoPIRG goons hounding me with their tedious flyers.

Damn right I want some change.

But is a “change” platform enough to win the general election?

Obama’s campaign strategists had better hope so, or else they need to start thinking about cementing a politically sound, unwavering stance that the rest of Americans can believe in. That or get ready to get dirty. Not that we can fault the freshman Senator from Illinois for keeping the high road while courting middle sympathies—that’s SOP for any savvy politician. Whether he’s wisely wavering or flip-flopping fantastically or just re-articulating the nuances of his positions, Obama certainly knows how to play his opening moves to win the middle.

And there’s no doubt that he’s re-energized his base at the same time, even pulling new voices into the fray and stirring up the youth vote like never before. Yup, Obama is poised to redefine what it means to be a Democrat. But the endgame for this election is going to require more than sexy slogans and fancy political maneuvering. Barack Obama is going to have to hold his own on his own and get ready to get down to it with his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain. Change, I’m afraid, isn’t going to be enough. Just ask George McGovern.

Sen. McGovern from South Dakota was once the shining star of the Democratic Party, too. Most folks getting giddy over Obama are likely too young to even know the name. But McGovern and his storied bid for the 1972 presidential election is worth reading up on.

He’s remembered for his outspoken and caustic opposition to the idiot war we were then stuck in neck deep—the one in Vietnam. And his opposition resonated. Hey, Obama’s against the war—the one in Iraq. That’s good news, right? McGovern’s also remembered for energizing his base and harvesting a new crop of then-new voters. Hell, he practically invented the modern notion of the youth vote. Just like Obama is today. More good news, right? Finally, McGovern is remembered most famously for reorganizing the Democratic Party, for realigning the way Washington Democrats worked. You want to talk about revolution? That man of the Midwest, George McGovern ,brought it. Just like Obama’s ideology of change wants to bring it—not just to the Democratic Party, but to Americans, to the world, to Mars, the Kuiper belt and beyond.

And surely all of this must be good news.

One problem: McGovern got his ass kicked. His 61 to 37 percent landslide loss to tricky Dick Nixon, the second worst recorded in U.S. history, was a shaming the Democrats didn’t recover from until Bill Clinton’s glory time 20 years later. Obama is no McGovern. But the point remains that McGovern lost—just like Obama might lose—because his high ideals fell easy pray to an unstoppable, if unscrupulous, political machine bent on winning at whatever cost. Bottom line, if Obama wants to win positive press and get his grill printed on the latest toddler wear, he’s making all the right moves.

If he wants to win in November, he’s going to have to embrace change himself and run on something more than just pretty ideology.

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