Well, we seem to have discovered the ‘true’ Barack Obama – he is your classic ‘say anything to win’ politician! During the primaries Barack Obama was the liberal candidate, he was far left’s candidate who would take their issues to Washington and make them relevant again! Here is some of what he said (or implied, or hinted, or led some to think) he would stand for this election:

1. Pulling out of Iraq, without any conditions and as quickly as possible. (Got him on video here in the last debate)
2. He claimed he would fight the new FISA-NSA rules enacted after 9-11 and resist immunity for telecommunications companies who supported the government’s investigations of possible (and actual – in some cases) terrorist cells plotting to kill Americans.
3. He clearly supported the DC gun ban law
4. He was opposed to NAFTA
5. He was considered a stalwart on a woman’s right to choose an abortion over birth
6. He was supposedly going to end the hold the Jewish Lobby has on foreign affairs, and give more credence to the Arab/Palestinian side.
7. He promised to use public campaign financing in the general election, demonstrating the principled value of public control of free speech.
8. He was supposedly against the death penalty – another liberal signature issue.

I once said Obama was like the Mirror of Erised, a fictional device in the Harry Potter stories which reflected the deepest desires of the person looking in the mirror. It was a trap, an image of hope that was, in reality just an enticing fiction.

Obama’s vague and vacuous position statements allowed many people on the far left to assume he was the most liberal candidate available, and that he would champion their causes.  It seems they were seriously mistaken.  In the last few weeks Obama has flip-flopped on all these issues and more – turning into an echo of McCain (and Bush as well) instead of a champion against the conservative policies that have been governing this country for over a decade now.

Here are the flop-flips Obama has done since vanquishing Hillary Clinton: who had an actual record of being a liberal stalwart:

1. Obama will be going to Iraq soon, and he knows he faces being handed over an Iraq on the path to victory – therefore he has begun equivocating on his plans.  And he knows he cannot pretend there is no risk to this victory by pulling out forces without any regard to what is happening on the ground. This reality has been explained to him by liberal news outlets in no uncertain terms – his current plans will be a disaster. In fact Obama was recently caught lying to either the Iraq government or the American people on his positions – we still don’t know which.
2. The other signature issue for the far left when it comes to George W Bush is their lame fear mongering that protecting America from attack is actually a front for listening in on the babbling lefties. Most of us find this fear mongering more humorous than scary (see here for an example), but when push came to shove the liberals expected their candidate to stand with them, despite the obvious blow-back that would come from tearing down our protections against planned attacks we know are underway because of a fear of unsubstantiated invasions of privacy. This was the acid test for the liberal standard bearer – and Obama threw them under the bus, not even promising to do a show-filibuster. But its not like this has not happened many times before from other Democrat leaders.
3. Disarming America is a big deal in the far left fevered swamps. And when the Supreme Court ruled to dump DC’s gun ban laws, you would think Obama would simply rail against the decision and stay vaguely neutral. But no, he actually changed his position (and damn near immediately, as I noted here) and supported the court’s decision! Is Obama a threat to ‘bitter’ gun owners or not? Who knows, but he clearly is misleading someone here (and maybe everyone). Here I posted on how he was supposed to be the centrist, but was talking far left behind the scenes.  Now he seems to be the far left candidate who is running full steam to the center, damn the primary voters (aka, dupes).
4. Obama’s opposition to NAFTA has melted into a pool of ambiguity and anger from the left.
5. And in what has to be the biggest blow-off to Hillary Clinton supporters, Obama has now taken up the centrist conservative position on abortion, restricting it’s use to address physical health risks to the mother:
   

   In an interview this week with “Relevant,” a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain “a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother.”

   Obama then added: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”…

   Boy, all those pro-choice women supporting Hillary must be spitting mad now!

6. Another of Obama’s two-faced flip-flop-flip was on the matter of Jerusalem and whether it would remain the capitol of Israel. Again we have no clue what his views really are because he has made so many conflicting and vague statements.
7. Obama’s flopping all started with his reverse course on pledging to use public funding for his campaign – which irritated the liberal press no end who continue to try and control politics by limiting free speech of average Americans.
8. He has turned his back on the anti-death penalty plank of the liberal base.
9. And then we have some flop-flop’s, which are surprise positions no one knew Obama had, but mirror Bush policies – like supporting federal funds going to faith based institutions.  Though I am not sure America is behind sending their hard earned tax dollars to Rev Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright.

All of this has destroyed Obama’s image as a principled stalwart of liberal causes. His ‘change’ mantra now reflects his ever shifting positions. The ‘change’ we will be getting is going from someone who says what he means, and does what he says, to someone who is a complete cypher on key issues of the day.

And the liberal base is noticing the demoralizing fact that Obama is more than an empty suite, he appears to be the ultimate panderer, like none other seen before in national politics:

New and Not Improved

Senator Barack Obama stirred his legions of supporters, and raised our hopes, promising to change the old order of things. He spoke with passion about breaking out of the partisan mold of bickering and catering to special pleaders, promised to end President Bush’s abuses of power and subverting of the Constitution and disowned the big-money power brokers who have corrupted Washington politics.

…

We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games.

We have never seen a candidate abandon so many positions on so many fronts in such a short time. This is complete election ad fodder for McCain and the GOP, using demonstrable examples of Obama’s flightiness on key issues, his inability to hold any resolve, his inability to stand tall and strong on issues. If Obama has to face down threats in a contentious environment, all this has shown America is Obama would crumble into a mess of conflicted, confused and incoherent babble. That fact is now well established. As has been the news symbol for the Obama campaign – the flopping fish!

Tags: 2008 Election, Abortion, Campaign Finance, Death Penalty, Faith Based Programs, FISA, Gun Control, Iraq, NAFTA, NSA, Obama