Dick Morris writes about the various reasons why Obama’s lead has shrunk and they all come back to one major point. He is a flip-flopper that makes Sen. Kerry look downright principled.
Obama has carried flip-flopping to new heights. In the space of a month and a half, this candidate — who we don’t really yet know very well — reversed or sharply modified his positions on at least eight key issues:
• After vowing to eschew private fundraising and take public financing, he has now refused public money.
• Once he threatened to filibuster a bill to protect telephone companies from liability for their cooperation with national security wiretaps; now he has voted for the legislation.
• Turning his back on a lifetime of support for gun control, he now recognizes a Second Amendment right to bear arms in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
• Formerly, he told the Israeli lobby that he favored an undivided Jerusalem. Now he says he didn’t mean it.
• From a 100 percent pro-choice position, he now has migrated to expressing doubts about allowing partial-birth abortions.
• For the first time, he now speaks highly of using church-based institutions to deliver public services to the poor.
• Having based his entire campaign on withdrawal from Iraq, he now pledges to consult with the military first.
• During the primary, he backed merit pay for teachers — but before the union a few weeks ago, he opposed it.
• After specifically saying in the primaries that he disagreed with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) proposal to impose Social Security taxes on income over $200,000 and wanted to tax all income, he has now adopted the Clinton position.
Obama’s breathtaking flips and flops are materially different from McCain’s. While McCain had opposed offshore oil drilling and now supports it, the facts have obviously changed. Obama’s shifts have nothing to do with altered circumstances, just a change in the political calendar.
As a candidate who was nominated to be a different kind of politician, Obama has set the bar pretty high. And, with his flipping and flopping, he is falling short, to the disillusionment of his more naïve supporters. One wag even called him the “black Bill Clinton,” a turnaround of the “first black president” moniker that had been pinned on Bill.
It all comes down to the simple fact that Obama has no record, no history, to judge him on these flip-flops.
On the other hand McCain has decades of crossing the aisle and making his base mad as hell, because of his principals. If he believes in it he does it. Consequences from his base be damned. While I disagree with him on much, this character trait is something I respect highly in both Bush and McCain.
Obama on the other hand will jettison a principal if it becomes inconvenient to his campaign. If it damages his chances at gaining power then he throws it into the trash bin. For Obama its easier to hold no position and create no controversy rather then taking a stand for what he believes in. Probably because he doesn’t believe in much other then blind ambition. Case in point, all those “present” votes.
Dick Morris then explains that McCain has risen in the polls due to the drilling issue. Everyone and their mother knows the environazi’s and Democrats have blocked drilling for years, and the consequences of that fact is that we are even more beholden to foreign oil then ever before.
The truth is that the Democrats put the need to mitigate climate change ahead of the imperative of holding down gasoline prices at the pump. If there was ever a fault line between elitist and populist approaches to a problem, this is it. In fact, liberals basically don’t see much wrong with $5 gas. Many have been urging a tax to achieve precisely this level, just like Europe has done for decades.
Obama said that he was unhappy that there was not a period of “gradual adjustment” to the high prices, but seems to shed few tears over the current levels. After all, if your imperative is climate change, a high gas price is worth 10 times a ratified Kyoto treaty in bringing about change.
McCain is capitalizing on this fact.
Want to guess what the next flip-flop from Obama will be?
More here.
See author page
With Obama, the problem is Obama. He has generated enough confusion so that people, even his base of followers, don’t really know what to believe. But much worse for Obama, he has become the not-to-be-trusted candidate. Your guess is as good as anyone’s as far as what he will or may not do.
Because of Obama’s lack of commitment to his previous positions, now people will judge him as to whether he is sincere or whether Obama will revert to his radical, extremist, left-wing ideals. That’s a lot of uncertainty. Me thinks, once an extremist liberal, always an extremist liberal.
I guess it’ll be best if people avoid even the thought of voting for Obama and cut to the chase; vote for John McCain for President and provide the nation with a well-founded, experienced patriot eager to serve his country honestly. His steadfastness is based on a firm commitment to his positions, on the issues; he is a candidate we can trust and believe in.
http://www.nextgenerationcorp.com/nextgenblog/
Flip flop…….. are we allowed to just say lie?
What bugs me about this most is that if the Republican Party had bothered getting a true conservative with a set of C.A. Jones, Obama wouldn’t stand a chance, but instead we get McCain who, at times, seems to be doing everything he can to throw the fight. If I were a conspiracy nut I’d wonder if George Soros paid off both sides.
Curt said:“Everyone and their mother knows the environazi’s and Democrats have blocked drilling for years”
It seems our Dem friends are still in denial on that point. As is usual with them, EVERYTHING is Bush’s fault. See comments here:
change: mr obama reserves the right to refuse service, imean change his mind, as the crowd he is speaking to sees fit. that being said, he changes more than a baby with a very bad case of the runs, which is what his policies leave most people with. he is a turd who is so arrogan tthat he can’t see just whom he is alienating…which would be everyone in his party wo hasn’t had the kool-aid yet.
Yes, “consequences to his base be damned” :
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16124.html
I agree, he isn’t flip flopping, he is just lying and the truth will come out if he gets elected. He is hoping to pull some of the conservative votes his way because he knows the liberals will vote for him just because he is a Democrat.
Yes, there are a lot of those liberals you speak of around, Gregory – sadly, in my very own family. And it bugs me that people cannot see through all that Obama says and does. It’s time for a change, all right – change from the Democratic chokehold our country is under. I’ve had the chance to attempt a discussion with a few of these strong Obamoron supporters, and the way they think and support their facts is fallacious to a scary degree. I fear for our country should he get elected. God forbid!
Saying you respect McCain for sticking to his principles sounds as stupid as saying you respect Bill Clinton for his marital fidelity.
The only issues he hasn’t fully compromised on is immigration reform and gun rights. And he spends a lot more time talking to La Raza than the NRA…
This coming from one who said it was a private matter, now admits infidelity. Zounds check and see if some pigs are flying. What other revelations can we expect.
As usual Fit Fit misses the point.
When I personally confronted McCain with some of his views that upset the conservative base he didn’t try to weasel around it. In fact, he was very direct and said that he thought his positions were the right ones to take on these issues and he stood by that decision. And he said if that bothers you so much, then don’t vote for him.
And I didn’t in the primary. But I did admire McCain’s willingness to give me “straight talk” especially as the event occurred at a time when nearly everyone thought his campaign was dead.
Obama doesn’t have McCain’s moral and intellectual courage. Have you ever heard him tell one of his supporters who doesn’t like his flip flops not to vote for him?
‘Dick Morris’ and ‘principles’ in the same paragraph.
Cognitive dissonance is the phrase which comes to mind.
One useful strategy I’ve adopted:
Stop reading a piece whenever ‘flip flop’ or any variation thereof occurs.
One can avoid great steaming piles of intellectual dishonesty that way.
Wait a minute, Arthur…you’ll avoid reading a piece when it reveals the truth?
He *does* flip-flop. Granted, it’s a characteristic of every politician, and I’m not denying that McCain hasn’t done it either, but it’s pretty much common knowledge by now that Obama does it as a convenient political tactic, to get the central voters. You can’t deny what’s fact, and not reading about it will definitely not make it any less true.
Leah: Let’s cut to the chase.
“Arthur” and the Obamatons don’t care if their annointed one flip flops. They don’t care if he backtracks on every single issue they claim is so important and constantly complain about when it’s Bush talking about it.
The ONLY thing they care about is naked political power. They have corrupted themselves with hate for anything and anyone witn an (R) after their name.
Libtards like “Arthur” sold their souls to the devil years ago and don’t regret it one bit.
Mike, in full name calling mode, typed:
Libtards like “Arthur” sold their souls to the devil years ago and don’t regret it one bit.
Yet another ‘discussion’ of the ‘issues’ right Mike?
As for ‘flip-flop(s)’, a completely subjective term which seems a favorite the truly lazy and incurious, let’s take a moment for the late, unlamented Richard Milhouse Nixon:
“Circumstances change…”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92426950
So this IS from JohnMcCain.com, but it’s the truth.
And just a heads up, it shows your Messiah’s flip-flopping in all its glory.
Without further ado, Arthur: this one’s for you:
http://www.johnmccain.com/videolanding/documentary.htm
@Adrian Sota
You are correct about Obama’s confusion, but your conclusion (I presume an appeal to reason?) is misplaced. Obama is popular because people , when confronted with the irrational, don’t always respond rationally. If they find a part of the message attractive, some are perfectly capable of suspending disbelief in order to pursue their “hope” of realizing that limited promise, despite the fact that everything else says “it ain’t gonna happen.”
I think the only way to combat that, as I said in a post to another thread, is to get them to realize that what they think is desirable really isn’t. Trying to reason with irrational people is may make you feel good, but it’s wasted on them.
But nice try, anyway. And, who knows, you may actually reach some of them.
Leah, #16
Nice video! Thanks!
Definitely worth viewing. Thanks Leah: