Obama Explains His Campaign Strategy

Supporters cheer Obama at a rally in St. Louis.

Yet Obama is so confident that he is even repeating his admiration for Ronald Reagan's political skills, which triggered harsh criticism from Clinton and her campaign a few weeks ago. "Ronald Reagan, I think, shifted our politics in a fundamental way," he says. "You know, I was criticized by the Clintons for saying that, but it's just a fact—that there was a realignment, and the conservative framework for thinking about issues has dominated for the last 25 years," he says. "I think we are in a place where we can start changing that."

He even raised the prospect that there are "enough disaffected Republicans out there, that you could get a movement of Obama Republicans...to form a working majority to restore some balance between government and the private sector."

Obamicans? The very idea speaks volumes about how far the candidate has come, whether or not he reaches his ultimate destination.