I noted last week Senator Obama hadn’t been sounding like himself lately. Today Bloomberg reports that the Senator has made an admission of the turn in style and is now running away from negative campaigning.

“I told this to my team, you know, we are starting to sound like other folks, we are starting to run the same negative stuff,” Obama told a crowd of about 5,000 in Wilmington, North Carolina. “It shows that none of us are immune from this kind of politics. But the problem is that it doesn’t help you.”

What happened to Obama? Put simply, reality set in. It is well and good to say you will stay upbeat in a campaign, a whole other story to actually do it while your opponents pile on. What makes Obama unique to his base is his message of “hope” and a change from the past. What is unrealistic is that he can win a general election without appearing to fight back. Gore and Kerry spent endless amounts of time talking about changing the tone and being above it all while George Bush ran circles around them.