A test for Barack’s conservative allies

In David Sommerstein’s report on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s shifting political views, her aide describes Ms. Gillibrand as “a fiscal conservative.”

The new junior Senator from New York is only one of a new generation of Democratic lawmakers who’ve risen from centrist or center-right districts.

Think of them as red state Democrats, from Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia, and Wyoming.

As President Obama fights to save his stimulus package, it’s these politicians he has to rally, not the Republicans across the aisle.

Being a big-tent party is a blessing — you get the perks of leadership.

But it’s also a curse, when you have to please leaders as diverse as Barbara Boxer and Ben Nelson.

This is also one of the reasons that liberals were infuriated with the pick of Sen. Gillibrand. The last thing they wanted was one more centrist shifting Congress’s center of gravity.

If the stimulus package tanks, Mr. Obama will almost certainly have his own Party’s moderates to thank, for better or worse.