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Positions Being Driven By Polls and Focus Groups

July 9, 2008

While I don’t by into the cute labels like “flip-flopper in-chief,” I do worry as a democrat that “our guy” has no core of beliefs.  What seems to be driving Senator Obama?  I found an older article from the Washington Post that details “changes of position” during the primary from both Obama and Clinton.  For Senator Obama they list the following:

1.  Union money being called special interest money

2.  His promise to accept public financing

3.  Ending the Cuba embargo

4.  Illegal immigration

5.  Decriminalizing marijuans

This post from Time is more up to date.  It adds to the list:

6.  D.C. Gun Ban

7.  Welfare Reform

8.  FISA Bill

Two others that are not mentioned are:

9.  Jerusalem being the undivided capital of Israel

10.  Meeting With Terror Leaders With No Pre-Conditions

Anyone care to add to the list?

Is Obama Flip Flopping On Iraq?

July 3, 2008

I’m sure that most of you saw it today all over the news. Obama stated that he would further refine his Iraq policy after a trip he has planned there later this summer. During the primary he repeatedly stated that troops would be gone within 16 months. Today he states it is possible the 16-month time line could slip if the pace of
withdrawal needs to be slowed some months to ensure troop safety.

I think he does need to be responsible about pulling out if he should be elected, but I think we can add this to the ever-growing lists of flip flops he is committing. Of course, being the media darling, you don’t often hear about them, do you?

Obama and General Clark

July 1, 2008

In case you have yet to see General Clark’s comments about Senator McCain, here it is…

And Obama’s response is to disavow himself from these comments.  How many times do we have to hear campaign surrogates make comments and then the next day have the candidate reject the same comments?  When will we eventually say that enough is enough?  Disavowing yourself of the comments at a later point after the damage is done just doesn’t cut it in my book.

Obama’s Latest “Flip-Flop”

June 19, 2008

Well he has done it yet again ladies and gentlemen. Our democratic nominee for president of the United States has decided to just say no to public campaign financing. According to the Dispatch:

Barack Obama said Thursday he’ll bypass the federal public financing system in the general election, abandoning an earlier commitment to take the money if his Republican rival did as well.

Seems like a dumb move to me.

Obama Camp Again Dissing Ohio

June 16, 2008

This is not the first time that we have heard from a member of the Obama camp about how it can garner 270 electoral votes and not win Ohio.  More recently according to the Dispatch, Obama adviser David Plouffe secretly told a crowd how they can win this thing without Ohio’s help.

At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.

Florida, which has 27 electoral votes this year, gave the presidency to George W. Bush in the disputed election of 2000. Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, ensured Bush of re-election in 2004 in his race against Kerry. Neither state was hospitable to Obama this year. Clinton handily won in Ohio and she prevailed in Florida although the national party had punished the state and the candidates didn’t campaign there.

The presumed Democratic nominee’s electoral math counts on holding onto the states Kerry won, among them Michigan (17 electoral votes), where Obama campaigns on Monday and Tuesday. Plouffe said most of the Kerry states should be reliable for Obama, but three currently look relatively competitive with Republican rival John McCain — Pennsylvania, Michigan and particularly New Hampshire.

Asked about his remarks, Plouffe said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.

“You have a lot of ways to get to 270,” Plouffe said. “Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th.”

Plouffe has been pitching such a new approach to the electoral map in calls and meetings, according to several people who discussed the conversations on the condition of anonymity because they were meant to be private. Plouffe confirmed the descriptions in the interview.

Now it is no secret that Obama was not my choice for the democratic candidate for president, but he is the nominee and I think he is an intelligent man.  I don’t understand why his surrogates keep suggesting that Obama doesn’t need Ohio to win.  Many Ohioans want change, even if it isn’t Clinton and will happily vote for him.  But they also like to be told how important their vote is to this process and to the eventual ascension of the winning candidate to the office of president.  He really needs to get a hold of his advisers and quiet them down.

An Oldie But Goodie

June 13, 2008

I saw this on TV the night it aired and just ran into it again on the internet.  Obama supporters should be asked this question because they can never answer it.