Barack Obama -- politican, flip-flopper and real American
Obama is an all-American flip-flopper
Barack Obama -- politican, flip-flopper and real American
Is Barack Obama a Manchurian candidate after all? No, I don't mean closeted Muslim, or Muslim apostate, or whatever the Internets are calling him this week. I mean closeted Republican...or liberal apostate. The minute that Obama became the Dems' presumptive nominee, he traded his cloak of liberal-oriented change for the same thing that he saw John McCain wearing around town, a stylish pair of flip-flops.
Last week we talked about his convoluted back-tracking on campaign finance, but Friday's flip-flop on the U.S. Constitution -- and the right of the government and corporations to spy on you -- is a less inside baseball, and a lot more serious. To make a long story short, when Obama was wooing liberal Democratic primary voters, he promised to filibuster any bill that gave retroactive immunity to lawbreaking telecom companies. But now he won't -- he only says that he'll "work" to remove it from the final bill...kind of in the way that the Washington Nationals are going to "work" real hard between now and September to win the National League East.
Good luck with that, Barack. The scariest thing is that I don't think that Obama is done drifting to the right. I wouldn't be surprised if recycled inside-the-Beltway center-right hack Sam Nunn gets the nod for veep. Why not. now that that pesky Democratic primary thing is out of the way. Is this why they call him "presumptive"?
While the campaign-finance and domestic-spying flip-flops seem a lot different -- both are rooted in the same principle, and it's a dubious one. Obama seems to be winking at his supporters and saying: You know I'm the best guy and I'll do the right thing once I get to the Oval Office -- so let me say or do whatever I think I need to for now, in order to make sure I actually get there.
But while none of this changes the all-important fact that his opponent McCain would be a disastrous third Bush term for America, Obama's underlying message is still a morally dubious one. The best way to show America that you'll be a stand-up president is to be a stand-up candidate for the job. Saying one thing and doing something else on a core issue like the future of the Constitution is a bad signal.
I will say this: Obama's actions since claiming the nomination show how ridiculous the wildest Manchurian candidate-spinning Obama haters truly are -- pushing the idea that he's somehow unpatriotic or un-American. In fact, Obama is a politician with a (mostly) good message and a great story who really, really wants to be the president of the United States -- and will do or say whatever it takes to get himself there.
Is there anything more all-American than that?
UPDATE: Just saw that Dick Polman made pretty much the same point on this, while reminding us that at least Obama didn't fry some mentally retarded kid like Bill Clinton did to make the same political point in 1992.
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
Obama has never acted or spoken as a true far left liberal, no matter what the right wing claims (base solely on a right-wing publication that always identified any Democratic Senator running for president as "the most liberal voting record in the Senate"), but he is supposed to be a Constitutional scholar. So it is a great disappointment when he chooses the un-Constitutional side of an issue. But even so, his flip flops are much fewer than McCain's and usually (not this time) on less important issues.
"(base solely on a right-wing publication that always identified any Democratic Senator running for president as 'the most liberal voting record in the Senate')" How do you reconsile this statement with the fact that at the time these results were published (prior to Super Tuesday) Hillary was the frontrunner in the Dem primary and by all appearances was presumed to be coronated soon. Hillary was ranked 16th most liberal, Obama was 1st.— legatus- Read up on the issue, legatus. The basis for the difference in the "ratings" of Obama and Clinton was truly insignificant in an real sense: minor votes on minor issues. For the most part, they both voted with the Democratic mainstream the vast majority of times.— Talking point sleuth
- Verse you keep saying 20 years, 20 years... how many seconds of Rev. Wright have you seen? 30 seconds? Maybe 60? Okay I'll be extremely generous and say 30 minutes. 30 mins of Rev. Wright is 0.1% of his work over the past 20 years (assuming one 30 minute sermon each week). Do you seriously believe that you know someone's beliefs based on 1/1000th of their work?— Politburo
- "Read up on the issue, legatus. The basis for the difference in the "ratings" of Obama and Clinton was truly insignificant in an real sense: minor votes on minor issues." The fact that there is such a small difference between 1st & 16th (some might say that this indicates a marching in lockstep mentality) does not negate the fact that ther IS in fact a difference. Also you do not address my question as to the reconciliation of the fact that the frontrunner at the time of publication was ranked 16th and not 1st as was indicated by Archimedes. I'd think that if this publication was trying to brand the Democratic Senator running for president as 'the most liberal voting record in the Senate', they'd have ranked Hillary as #1 at the time...and maybe put a challenger like Obama at #2. The fact that there is such a small difference in their Senate voting records, as you indicated, would make this much easier to accomplish.— legatus
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