Obama’s strength is now clear: his temperament and the legacy of Bush has brought many small-c conservatives into his camp:

“I’ve always been a Republican, but I’ve switched in the last four years,” said Helen Taylor, 63, of Los Fresnos, Tex., in a follow-up interview. “I voted for Bush because I knew more about him than Kerry, and I stuck with the Republican stance on things at that time. But I became concerned about things Bush was doing, and now I’m more in line with the Democratic platform. I also like Barack Obama because he has intelligence and class and the ability to think on his feet.”

I’ve felt this way for almost two years. And what’s left of the right has become so shrill, so theologically rigid, so culturally afraid that they have become a shell of what self-confident, future-oriented conservatives should be. The right will recover from Bush. But Rove has succeeded beyond measure in creating a durable majority: for the Democrats.