Victor Davis Hanson‘s latest National Review Online column dissects President Obama’s “evolving” approach to election campaigns.

Obama’s calls for a new civility four years ago are apparently inoperative. The vow to “punish our enemies” and the intimidation of Romney-campaign donors are a long way from the soaring speech at Berlin’s Victory Column and “Yes, we can.” Obama once called for a focus on issues rather than personal invective. But now we mysteriously hear again of Romney’s dog, his great-grandfather’s wives, and a roughhousing incident some 50 years ago in prep school.

The “hope and change” slogan for a new unity gave way to a new “us versus them” divide. “Us” now means all sorts of identity groups like African-Americans for Obama, Latinos for Obama, gays for Obamas, greens for Obama, and students for Obama. “Them,” in contrast, means almost everyone who cannot claim hyphenation or be counted on as a single-cause constituency. In 2008, the Obama strategy was supposedly to unite disparate groups with a common vision; in 2012, it is to rally special interests through attacks on common enemies.