While admitting the gravest of the president’s left-wing betrayals, Kevin Baker over at Harper’s Magazine gives one of the more sober and compelling arguments for the continued support of Barack Obama in the 2012 election, but also raises the question of whether the man even wants the office.

“The whole rationale for the continuing existence of the conservative, Democratic Party leadership to which Mr. Obama belongs,” Baker begins, “is that they, and only they, can save us—save our Social Security and Medicare, prevent us from invading Iran, and keep the Supreme Court at least where it is now.”

But at the presidential debate in Denver last week, Obama “came apart before a national television audience,” prompting liberals to ask whether he has enough fight left in him to maintain even the pro-corporate, establishmentarian stance that has drawn sighs from committed leftists and brought much suffering on the public these last four years.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.