At a town hall meeting in Georgia today Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denied changing his positions on issues like Iraq, guns, and the death penalty to appeal to the political middle.
“The people who say this haven’t apparently been listening to me,” Obama said. Technically Obama is correct. He has not changed his position on Iraq. What he has changed is his position on the timeframe with withdrawing the troops from Iraq. Obama blamed liberals and the media for the perception that he has changed his position. On the issues of guns and the death penalty, Obama may not have changed his basic positions, but he has broadened them so that they have centrist appeal.
Obama said that his supporters should not always expect to agree with him, “You’re not going to agree with me on 100 percent of what I think, but don’t assume that if I don’t agree with you on something that it must be because I’m doing that politically,” he said. “I may just disagree with you.” It is clear to everyone who is paying attention that Obama is moving towards the middle, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
We have seen what happens when Democrats run liberal candidates in a general election. They get crushed. One of the big criticisms that the GOP is trying to use against Obama is that he is an elitist liberal. In order to counter this charge, and also appeal to more moderate voters, he has had to move to the middle, but he needs to be sure that he doesn’t alienate the left, because it was liberals who powered his campaign over Hillary Clinton, and these same liberals, if they become disenchanted, will take their support away.
I expect to hear the words “flip-flopper” and “Barack Obama” used in the same sentence many times over the next few months. I cringe at imagining the ads–Barack Obama: His Iraq timeline’s the same, that is, unless it changes.
Barack Obama: He’s for the death penalty, except for when he’s against it.
Hell, I already saw an internet banner ad for the McCain camp that, alongside a particularly grim photo of Barack, warned that Obama had been “endorsed” by Fidel Castro. In short, things are gonna get ugly. And I would definitely look for Obama’s choice to opt out of public financing to be used as evidence of flip-floppery. Sure, some of the claims will be true, or have some kernel of truth, but the mudslinging will be out of control.
Sigh.
You really hit the nail on the head when you point out that liberals will take their support away. Throughout the primaries, I can’t tell you how many times I asked people why they were supporting Obama, and their answer was almost always because they saw him as the more progressive of the two candidates. One person went as far as to say that Hillary was more like McCain than she was like Obama, (can we say ‘uninformed voter’?). The problem: Obama now finds himself in an unenviable position, he must appease both centrists and liberals, neither of which he can afford to alienate in this election. The centrists, because so many of them make up the American voting public, and the liberals, not only because they vote, but because they are most likely work in the political trenches, and continue to donate money. It’ll be interesting to see how this thing unfolds.
If I was Obama, I would pick my running mate very carefully, confirm to voters that troops will be out in 16 months (NO EXCEPTIONS), and maintain a firm stance on abortion rights (especially because some very high profile pro-choice activists put their weight behind him early-on, even earning him the NARAL endorsement, and if he wavers, trust me, they will not hesitate to speak out, as well as they should, in my opinion).
In Obama’s favor: McCain is, well, McCain. Surely he’ll screw up on at least an even footing with his opponent
I think the biggest thing that Obama has working for him is the Keystone Cops like McCain campaign. I think that everybody would accept Obama’s centerist move as long as he held firm on what liberals see as the big issues of, as you mentioned, Iraq and abortion. Many of the most dedicated Obama supporters at first blamed the media for this, but there are so many shifts taking place that even they are starting to realize that they can’t blame the media. I would say that the honeymoon is over for Obama and liberals.
WHAT ARE KYOU DSL SM,