Posted on 07/05/2008 1:16:06 PM PDT by grundle
Obama has shifted to the right on unwarranted wiretapping, Israel, free trade, gun control, the death penalty, faith based programs, welfare reform, the Iraq war, abortion, the Patriot Act, campaign finance, and the Cuban embargo.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4264994.ece
July 4, 2008
Barack Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash
The Democratic nominee's policy pivots are causing anguish among liberals.
By Gerard Baker
Change, it turns out, wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Having campaigned for the past year as the agent of transformation, the man who would lead an historic shift in America's political direction, Barack Obama is discovering that there is quite a lot he likes about the way things are.
Since securing the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago, the only change coming from the Illinois senator has been in what he seems to stand for. Last month he dropped his opposition to a Bill before Congress that would give telecoms companies immunity from prosecution for carrying out illegal wiretaps on potential terrorist suspects.
He told a cheering crowd of Israel's supporters of his fervent commitment to the security of the Jewish state and added, for good measure, that an “undivided” Jerusalem should be the nation's capital. He said that he likes free trade after all, and that his primary campaign pledge to dismantle the North American Free Trade Agreement was a case of “overheated rhetoric”.
Last week he expressed support for a Supreme Court decision that struck down a ban on handguns and opposition to another that outlawed the death penalty for rape of a child.
This week he promised to expand President Bush's faith-based organisations initiative, a programme that channels funds to religious groups so that they can deliver social welfare services, which the Left regards as a heinous blurring of Church-State separation.
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http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/06/obama-shifts-on.html
Obama Shifts on Welfare Reform
July 01, 2008
ABC News' Teddy Davis and Gregory Wallace Report:
Barack Obama aligned himself with welfare reform on Monday, launching a television ad which touts the way the overhaul "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2243536/US-election-Barack-Obama-wobbles-on-withdrawing-Iraq-troops.html
US election: Barack Obama wobbles on withdrawing Iraq troops
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 12:20AM BST 04/07/2008
Senator Barack Obama has rushed to clarify his position on the Iraq War after he appeared to wobble on a commitment to withdraw US ground troops within 16 months, a central plank of his candidacy.
The Democratic presidential nominee used a press conference to say that the timetable was not set in stone and that he would adjust his plans based on conditions on the ground when he visits Iraq later this month.
On his website, Mr Obama promises he "will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months".
But he told journalists in North Dakota that those policies could be "refined" in the light of what he finds in Iraq.
"I've always said the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability," he said.
"When I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information and will continue to refine my policies."
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490
Senator Barack H. Obama Jr. (IL)
Voting Record
03/02/2006 USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization HR 3199 Y
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11217.html
Obama move irks reform allies
By KENNETH P. VOGEL
6/19/08
Barack Obama’s shift away from a public financing program has drawn fire from Republicans, but it’s also irked his sometime allies in the good government community.
They had come to see the Illinois senator as a budding champion for their efforts to reduce the role of special interest money in politics. And they praised his announcement last year that his presidential campaign would “aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee” under which both would accept taxpayer money in the general election.
So they were disappointed with Obama’s Thursday announcement that he would opt out of the public financing system and torn over his efforts to frame the move in the language of the campaign finance reform movement.
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http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/COLUMNIST14/807050328/-1/COLUMNIST
July 5, 2008
In August, Mr. Obama called for easing the economic embargo on Cuba. When he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2003, he indicated he favored lifting it entirely. But in a speech to the Cuban American National Foundation May 23, Mr. Obama said he'd maintain the embargo.
Rat politicians sell out the wacky lefties who get them nominated just like the Pubies sell out the conservatives.
Scrag ‘em both.
He hasn’t shifted ANYTHING, he is just lying to the American public in order to HIDE who he is and what he stands for in order to get elected.
How is kow-towing to a foreign power ‘conservative’?
I thought Obamas supporters were in favor of “change”
This guy is turning into a serial flip-flopper, just like the “Boston Dangler”, John Kerry..
And then he’ll shift right back to the left once elected.
Yes, you’re right. He’s just pretending to change his views. He never had any real principles.
Expect a hard left the day after the election.
Well, it’s enough to upset liberals!
Probably.
The liberals know that Osama needs to swerve way over to the right if he wants to get elected. The liberals know that nothing has changed. He’s still a left wing extremist no matter what he says to the morons in “the media.” They know it too.
He promised change and, sure enough, he changed.
Whoops! I meant Obama. I don’t know what I was thinking. These next four years are going to be awfully confusing.
“That’s not the Barack Obama I knew.”
He’s only shifting to the center to win the necessary electoral votes. Immediately after his election, he would be claiming that his victory, no matter how narrow, was a “mandate for change” to socialism. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have been singing that tune since Nov. ‘06.
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