IMG_6496, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

With the Super Tuesday showdown just days away, Sen. Barack Obama is visiting some very conservative areas of America. Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown reports on a trip to Idaho:

After months of selling his candidacy as a post-partisan endeavor, Obama wants Tuesday to prove that he really can appeal across party lines and take states such as Idaho, Kansas and North Dakota, which voted Republican in 2004.

It’s not out of the question that many Republicans might vote for the most liberal senator in America. But why?

Salena Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has an interesting article examining what attracts Republicans to Obama. And in today’s Washington Post, former Bush aide Pete Wehner outlines three reasons Obama appeals to the right:

1) Obama is a decent and thoughtful candidate who brings a different perspective to politics.

2) He’s up against the Clintons, and anyone in the position will have the support of conservatives.

3) His message is about unity and hope; he’s not preaching division and resentment.

Given the state of the Republican race, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some traditional Republicans turn to Obama on Tuesday. His message stands in stark contrast to what voters are hearing from John McCain and Mitt Romney, particularly in light of the divisive and negative campaigning of the past few weeks.

There’s just one problem with these so-called “Obama Republicans.” As Wehner articulates in his piece, Obama is a hard-core liberal. If he does win the Democrat nomination, he’ll be pitted against a candidate whose views are completely different on domestic and foreign policy issues. The difference that haven’t made headlines in the Democrat primary most certainly will in the general election.

Wehner has some advice: Obama should take a page from Bill Clinton’s playbook and adopt some conservative-oriented policy goals. Wehner picks school choice as a logical example for Obama to embrace. Such a move would help him tone down his harsh liberal views. He might even become the lead Democrat co-sponsor of the A-PLUS Act, introduced as an alternative to No Child Left Behind.

Obama should also highlight his partnerships with Republicans during his short stint in Washington. I had the opportunity to witness firsthand his powerful appeal back in 2006 when he worked with conservative Sen. Tom Coburn to pass the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which created a Google-like search engine to find federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans. Coburn and Obama brought together bloggers on the left and right to accomplish something meaningful for government transparency.

I don’t consider myself an “Obama Republican,” but I know people who do. The threat is serious to the eventual GOP nominee, and if Obama takes some of this advice, he just might be unbeatable. Then again, his own party might not ever give him a chance to win.