Listening to representatives from the Obama campaign as well as the candidate himself over the weekend, I was struck by the difference in tone and message from a machine that just a few months ago was constantly striking up a message built on hope and the end of partisan politics. Today Senator Obama sounds less like a fresh faced candidate bent on “changing the discussion” or “ending the fights of the past” and more like any other candidate ready to say or do anything, including bowl, to win.

I have been warning for a long while now that Senator Obama’s rhetoric wouldn’t be able to withstand the fight. It is hard to be hopeful when you face month after month of your opponents ripping everything you do to shreds. It is even more difficult in this modern world to escape the things that seem petty, how can you when YouTube and social networking are built on almost anything but substance?

Then there is the reality problem, Senator Obama is not a movie god or rock star, he isn’t the second coming or the first American king. He is a politician running for office, nothing more or less. It was his rhetoric and the proselytizing of his aides, followers and the media that built him into some pop-iconic image. Politicians can almost never live up to their rhetoric, it is just that much more difficult when your rhetoric builds such lofty expectations.

There is a real problem here though, not for the evangelical Obama supporters, who will follow him far beyond any void, but to the masses of people, those in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, whom just months ago may have looked past those divisive issues like race and class to vote for someone who promised hope and sounded different doing it. Will they turn up for just a man? Will they toss aside their fears when hope sounds much like the same old? I don’t expect them too, not with the way things seem right now, not with Jeremiah Wright still in their heads.

The general is many months away and many miles need to be crossed to get to the White House. One thing stands very clear in my mind though, Senator Obama no longer sounds the same as he did just a few short weeks ago. His rhetoric is changing, his polished image seems scoffed and he faces a general election voting block far different then those who vote in the Democratic primaries. He will need to look beyond professors, students and African Americans, to the heartland, to ethnic voters, to laborers and gun lovers and he will have to do it with the message of hope sliding away in favor of an attack and response mentality taking hold.

Senator Obama has proven himself an adept and versatile candidate. While in some ways there is less to him than was expected, in others there is far more. With that said, there are real problems now facing the Democrats for November, issues that need to be addressed very soon or they will see yet another election slip through their fingers.