List Of Some Important Obama Flips So Far In This Campaign

Barack Obama is the self proclaimed candidate of "change." All those who realize the fact that Obama is thin on record and experience ask what type of change dooes this man truly represent? The fact that he had the most liberal voting record in the Senate in 2007 probably tells us something about where he really stands.

I know that it may sound a little tiresome to hear the word "flip-flop" again as it was the major Republican assault on John Kerry's 2004 campaign but it needs to be said. Some may try to make lists of alleged McCain flip-flops as well. I do not think all the flips on those lists are as legitimate but it is truly beside the point. It is Barack Obama that warrants special attention on this issue. The reason is he has painted himself as an all together new type of candidate representing a new era in politics. It is more relevant to Obama than McCain because Barack is the one who has repeatedly claimed to be the post-partisan candidate, the candidate of change. Showing that he is just as much of a politician as the next guy certainly goes to dispelling those notions. I would like to add that this list is by no means necessarily complete, but that it represents important key indisputable flip-flops. Feel free to add more by posting comments. Here they are:

- CUBA EMBARGO: In January 2004, Obama said it was time "to end the embargo with Cuba" because it had "utterly failed in the effort to overthrow Castro." Speaking to a Cuban American audience in Miami in August 2007, he said he would not "take off the embargo" as president because it is "an important inducement for change."

- DECRIMINALIZING POT: While running for the U.S. Senate in January 2004, Obama told Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use. In the Oct. 30, 2007, presidential debate, he joined other Democratic candidates in opposing the decriminalization of marijuana.

- BUSINESSES HIRING ILLEGALS: In a March 2004 questionnaire, Obama was asked if the government should "crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants." He replied "Oppose." In a Jan. 31, 2008, televised debate, he said that "we do have to crack down on those employers that are taking advantage of the situation."

- FISA REFORM: In October 2007 the Obama campaign pledged he would filibuster "any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." In January 2008 Obama issued a statement saying, I "strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill." A few weeks ago Barack Obama voted for a bill that did just that.

- THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS: After the D.C. handgun ban had been overturned by the Supreme Court Obama said "it looks to me that the D.C. handgun ban overshot the runway. That it went beyond constitutional limits." But the Chicago Tribue reported in November 2007 that "Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional." Obama had also answered "yes" on a 1996 questionnaire to banning the "manufacture, sale, and possesion of handguns." Obama denied this but Politico reported his handwritting was on the document.

- NAFTA: In February 2008, as the campaign moved into the Rust Belt, Obama vowed to invoke a six-month opt-out of NAFTA clause and said he would take "the hammer" to NAFTA. Now, however, Obama says he doesn't believe in unilaterally reopening NAFTA. Obama now says that his anti-NAFTA rhetoric was a bit "overheated." He added that NAFTA has indeed been positive for the U.S. in some ways, and that his criticism, while trying to convince white blue collar voters to vote for him, was "overheated and amplified."

- IRAQ SURGE: Obama said on January 5, 2008, "I had no doubt, and I said when I opposed the surge, that given how wonderfully our troops perform, if we place 30,000 more troops in there, then we would see an improvement in the security situation and we would see a reduction in the violence." One year earlier, however, he said "we can send 15,000 more troops; 20,000 more troops; 30,000 more troops. Uh, I don't know any, uh, expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to, uh, privately that believes that that is gonna make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground." That is only one of many statements from Obama predicting the surge would worsen or have no effect on the security situation in Iraq. He flips and now claims he never said or believed things that are on the record.

- LAPEL FLAG PIN: Obama said about his lack of a flag pin on his lapel that the pin was a "substitute for patriotism" and "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest." Only days after his insulting and elitist comments about a "bitter" small town America "clinging to guns or religion" the pin had made a return to his lapel and he said, "I was never opposed to wearing flag pins." Normally a candidate's lack of a pin would not be an issue but Obama made it an issue by not wearing it specifically to show that he was opposed to Bush's policy and the alleged phony patriotism that comes along with it.

- JEREMIAH WRIGHT: Immediately after the tapes of Obama's pastor and close friend of 20 years Jeremiah Wright declaring "God damn America" and many more very radical anti-American and anti-Israel statements came out Obama reponded that he had "no intention of leaving the church itself" that and that Wright was "like an uncle" who was teaching "social gospel." He then gave a highly covered speech on race relations saying that "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother." One month later when the controversy had nonetheless not disappeared Obama did finally denounce Wright and cut him off out of political necessity. His next step was that he officially left Trinity United Church because he realized it was far too radical for most Americans to handle.

- UNDIVIDED JERUSALEM AS ISRAEL'S CAPITAL: In a speech before AIPAC the Senator from Illinois declared unambigously that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." Soon thereafter Obama said that he "tried to correct the interpretation" of that statement. He switched his position saying that "it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues and Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations.”

- CALIFORNIA MARRIAGE AMENDMENT: Obama claimed he believed the issue of gay marriage should be left up to the individual States. When a constitutional amendment was placed on the November ballot to overturn the California Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage Obama took a decidedly different approach. He went from saying it should be up to the states to writing to the to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club that "I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution."

- PUBLIC FINANCING: Barack Obama answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire in September 2007 saying that "If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." Obama ended up following the money and opted out of public financing for the general election.

- IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GAURD: Obama's campaign has said more recently that the Senator "has consistently urged that Iran's Revolutionary Guard be labeled what it is: a terrorist organization." But before this Obama spent months campaigning on his opposition to and his vote against the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment which did just that.

It seems that Barack Obama declaring himself the candidate of change is not so far off the mark after all.


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