Note: You might want to start at the Barack
Obama Index Page, especially
if you arrived here by using a search engine.
Since Barack Obama is a Democrat, his treatment by the national news media is entirely
different from the treatment his opponent receives. He has already broken several
campaign promises, but by and large, the press looks the other way.
Flip-flops, Campaign Finance, and "Rushing to the Center"
Senator Obama has changed his position on a number of issues, particularly in his decision
to bypass the "Campaign Finance Reform" (CFR) laws. Ironically, the person suffering the most
(this year) from the restrictions of CFR
is the guy who invented it.
Doomed to defeat. Over
the last few months, Mr. Obama has behaved not like a political messiah, but a typical, duplicitous
politician. He has flip-flopped on issues, such as offshore oil drilling, terrorist surveillance,
the North American Free Trade Agreement, public financing of campaigns and handguns. Expediency
trumps principle.
Feinting Right.
The last presidential debate on Wednesday [10/15/2008] revealed what will likely be Barack Obama's final
weeks' strategy — to sound like a conservative. Voters should see right through it.
Obama,
Con. Some people take solace from the fact that Senator Obama has verbally shifted
position on some issues, like drilling for oil or gun control, since this is supposed to show that
he is "pragmatic" rather than ideological. But political zig-zags show no such moderation as
some seem to assume. Lenin zig-zagged and so did Hitler. Zig-zags may show no more
than that someone is playing the public for fools.
The Alinsky
Ticket: [Scroll down] [Senator Obama] broke his promise on public funding of his fall
campaign. He pledged that he would fire any staffer who criticized Palin for private family matters.
When a staffer did that, Obama reneged again. In fact, if Obama were faithful to his own word, he would
not even be in the race. Here's what he said when he took his senatorial oath in 2005: "I'm not
running for national office. I am here to be sworn in as the United States senator from the state of
Illinois. I will not be running for president in '08."
Obama vs. Obama vs.
Obama. Barack Obama is running against himself. What's that, you say? Isn't
Mr. McCain his chief opponent? Well, politically speaking, yes Mr. McCain is. The
problem is that Barack Obama has had to define, refine and redefine himself as he goes along.
Obama backs
off 50-state strategy. Despite the talk about a changing electoral map and new strategies,
Barack Obama is pulling back from his 50-state plan as John McCain has solidified Republican support,
turning November's presidential election into a contest for the same handful of states that have swung
the last two contests.
Obama was in the Palin fanclub less than one short
month ago! While he was Algore envy green when Sarah Palin addressed the Republic National Convention
last night, Barack Obama was in Governor Palin's cheering squad last month. It was only in August when
presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama was touting the Alaska natural gas pipeline! Masters of wiping out
inconvenient truths on the Internet, the Obama campaign can't wipe out the words of the Alaska News.
Going
Barack & Forth. Barack Obama has been flip-flopping like a carp on a boat deck, changing his
position over the years on everything from the death penalty to the Patriot Act to Cuba, a review of his
record shows.
Barack
Obama, Hypocrite. Obama becomes the first major candidate to eschew public financing for his
general election campaign, allowing him to spend without limit in his race against McCain. Predictably,
Senator Obama had a ready-made excuse on hand to rationalize his utter hypocrisy.
The Obama movement:
Barack Obama no longer appears to be the leader of a movement that will herald a "new kind of politics"; he is
instead just another candidate running for office. During the last six weeks, Mr. Obama has erred in
making unabashed flips-flops. Despite the increased attention he is currently receiving on his overseas
tour, American voters are beginning to see beyond the glitter that the talented speaker dispensed throughout
the Democratic primaries and caucuses.
Obama's Born-Alive
Problem: Obama's current problem isn't really about his position on abortion. It is about his
central weakness as a presidential candidate: He overthinks and ends up seeming not to know what he thinks. He
can't seem to give a straight answer.
The whole Obama
story: He's too clever by half. Obama is in politics, and what matters politically
is what wins votes right here and right now. The kind of talk that won the votes — and
the hearts — of the left-wing base of the Democratic Party during the primaries may not be
enough to carry the day with voters in the general election. So Obama has been changing
his tune or, as he puts it, "refining" his message. This was not the kind of "change" that
the true believers among Obama's supporters were expecting.
An Anatomy of Flip-Flopping:
"Flip-flop" is usually just a politician's way of saying that an opponent has changed sides on an issue.
But in fact, such a change can be good or bad. The primary index of infamy is not the degree or frequency
of change but rather the motive for doing so. I therefore propose that we to define flip-flopping as
"changing sides in a political issue for a dishonest or deceptive motive".
Reality sets in about Obama.
After abandoning his pledge to abide by public financing, this apostle of cleansing the political culture is now going
after the high rollers. As the July 3 New York Times reported, "Last week, the Obama campaign collected about
$5 million at an event featuring celebrities in Los Angeles. The evening began with a dinner at the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion for more than 200 people who had contributed $28,500 per couple, or raised $50,000."
Obama Scrubs
website of surge criticism. Unbelievable but true. After denigrating the surge for more
than a year, according to the New York Daily News Obama's minions have been busy scrubbing his website of
any criticism the candidate made of the surge.
How'd This Happen?
This episode is classic Obama: he was slow to recognize he had a problem, he looks alternately
recalcitrant and then irresolute (as with the surge) as be bobs and weaves between his base and political
reality, and he condescends to voters. And then he doesn't have a good answer for his own voting
record. But it is really a failure of common sense: why not include domestic drilling as a
significant part of our energy approach?
Barack's
Barrel Roll: Speaking in Michigan — a Democratic state suffering one of the worst
economies in the country — Obama said the government should sell 70 million barrels of oil
from its national-security stockpiles. In the past, Obama noted, such action has "lowered gas prices
within two weeks." But as recently as last month, Obama said the reserves should be raided only during a
"genuine emergency" and maintained that he opposed tapping them to ease soaring gas prices "at this point."
Barack
Obama Is Flip-Flopping Himself to a November Defeat. The far-left wing of the Democratic Party
nominated a charismatic unknown, who has turned out not to be ready for primetime politics. … And since
Obama clinched the nomination, he has alienated important segments of his young, liberal base by flip-flopping
on a range of issues from offshore oil drilling, to government surveillance to gun control and abortion rights.
Barack's
No Reagan. Barack Obama is an arrogant pretender to a throne he has not earned. He wanted
to stand at the Brandenburg Gate like Reagan, grasping desperately for a chance to look presidential. But
he hasn't in any way demonstrated Reagan's resolve against America's enemies. Instead, this power-hungry
newbie has stood in about seven different places in the last four years on the primary controversy of our time.
In major change, Obama says he'll support
offshore drilling. Barack Obama Friday [8/1/2008] dropped his opposition to offshore oil
drilling, saying he could go along with the idea if it was part of a broader energy package. … The
change is dramatic because Obama often pointed to his opposition to drilling as a key difference between
himself and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Obama Attempts to Explain
Shift on Offshore Drilling. Obama first indicated Friday [8/1/2008] in an interview with the
Palm Beach Post that he would be willing to compromise on his opposition to off-shore drilling, and would
consider expanding the current drilling boundaries — if it was part of a plan to make the country
more energy independent by developing more fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy sources.
Obama shifts, says he may back offshore
drilling. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday [8/1/2008] he would be
willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive
policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.
Obama
reverses two positions in new energy plan. Obama had steadfastly fought the idea of new offshore
drilling and was against tapping the nation's emergency oil stockpile to relieve pump prices that have
stubbornly hovered around $4 a gallon. However, in a major energy speech yesterday [8/4/2008], Obama
proposed that the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying
that the move could help drive down gasoline prices in as soon as "within two weeks.
Obama flip-flops on offshore
oil drilling. Obama implied that his willingness to allow the drilling in Florida "wasn't really
a new position". But, of course, it is. As recently as late June, he said that, in order to
protect the US coastline, he would enforce a drilling moratorium that has been in place since 1981.
Obama proposes tapping oil stockpiles.
Obama's new proposal … includes two significant reversals of positions he has taken in the past:
He had steadfastly fought the idea of limited new offshore drilling and was against tapping the nation's
emergency oil stockpile to relieve pump prices that have stubbornly hovered around $4 a gallon.
Obama
moves on by shifting into reverse. The Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, has
asked his party to reinstate full voting rights for the Michigan and Florida delegations at this month's
convention, just three months after he led the charge for the two rebel states to be punished for holding
early primaries. The latest reversal of position by Senator Obama is contained in a letter to the Democratic
Party released on Sunday and follows an equally startling shift on offshore drilling for oil on Friday.
Obama Wants U.S. to
Be First in Space. During a town-hall-style event on Florida's so-called space coast [8/2/2008],
the Democrat said he no longer favors slashing NASA's budget, declaring that the U.S. "cannot cede our
leadership in space." Obama had previously supported delaying NASA's manned missions in order to
pay for early childhood education programs. Aides say he has now found other means to pay for his
education plans.
What Would Obama
Die For? Since securing the Democratic Party's nomination in June, Barack Obama has been busy redefining
himself. He has come out for a government surveillance bill he once opposed. He's expressed support for funding
religious programs with tax dollars. He reversed his stance on accepting public financing. He reversed his
view of the D.C. gun ban. And he hinted that he will "refine" his position on Iraq, only to push back against
himself this week and reiterate his Iraq withdrawal plan.
Obama says
he will protect NASA jobs, budget. In a dramatic reversal of policy, Democratic presidential
hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday [8/2/2008] told supporters on the Space Coast he no longer favors slashing
NASA's budget, declaring that the United States "cannot cede our leadership in space." Though he said
nothing specific about sending astronauts to the moon or Mars — the central focus of NASA's plans
and key to the hopes of many space supporters — Obama was more supportive of the agency than he
had ever been publicly.
Obama's Back Flips: In just days,
Obama has changed his mind on Iraq, reversed course on campaign finance, volte-faced on NAFTA and backtracked on Social
Security. So what does the candidate of change really believe?
Big O Losing Big Mo.
Poor Barack Obama. In the space of a few short weeks, he has gone from liberal savior with a
15 point lead over John McCain, to a mere mortal in a dead heat in the polls. He has alienated some
of his base by flip-flopping on issues like the FISA vote, partial-birth abortion and most importantly,
stating that he will continue to "refine" his Iraq War policy.
Tacking to
the Center Is Tacky. From Australia to London to almost all points in between, if there are two
things people know about Barack Obama, one of them is that he recently has changed his positions on abortion,
gun control, capital punishment, FISA laws, the status of Jerusalem, faith-based federal programs, public
financing of his campaign, welfare, NAFTA and free trade, the surge in Iraq, and his commitment to the
Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his Trinity Church, among other public policies.
The Gospel According to Obama: Obama
showed he clearly understands that his cultural liberalism poses a political problem when he appeared to flip-flop
on the important issue of a mental health exception for abortion. He recently told an interviewer from a
Christian magazine that he didn't think "mental distress" qualified as a legitimate justification for abortion.
Revealingly, after a backlash from the abortion lobby which depends on the "mental health exception" to justify
the vast majority of abortions, Obama quickly repudiated that remark.
Obama: Radical in
Liberal Clothing. In order to position himself for the general election, Obama has been running
furiously toward the center — deemphasizing his liberalism with the adroit use of linguistic jiu
jitsu. … The person running the okie doke is Obama, who, with media acquiescence, has changed his
rhetoric if not his positions on issues such as campaign finance, gun control, troop withdrawal, welfare
reform, NAFTA and terrorist surveillance — just to name a few.
Obama
The Blur. At his current pace, Barack Obama is going to give Bill Clinton a run for his
reputation as a political shape-shifter. Witness his performance this week in the Senate on foreign
intelligence surveillance. He voted to gut the bill before he voted to pass it.
Barack W. Bush?
Obama has, by his sudden forgoing of public funds, rejected the idea of campaign-finance reform. In fact,
he's the largest raiser of private cash in American political history, and seems to have dropped opposition to
accepting pernicious "special-interest money." Like a Republican, he raises the most among the nation's
wealthiest on Wall Street. During the primaries, Obama seemed to advocate the dismantling of the North
American Free Trade Agreement. But now candidate Obama has little desire to overturn the present Bush
trade policies.
The Audacity of
Abandonment: If I were a supporter of Barack Obama I would be nervous. Why? Is it his inexperience,
his radical connections, or his stale liberal positions? Nope. I would be nervous because he seems fundamentally
incapable of sticking with his principles on a host of issues large and small. I know his supporters are enthralled
with Mr. Hope and Change, but shouldn't it worry them that he is so quick to backtrack and hedge his answers — or
even switch positions entirely — during the course of a relatively short campaign?
Meet
the new Obama, master of the U-turn. Those who actually supported Obama during this process now
divide neatly, if unevenly, into two groups. The first, smaller, group is full of buyer's remorse.
The blogosphere is hissing like a catherine wheel with their anger with Obama, obviously, but above all with
themselves. The second, much bigger group, continues to buy Obama's story. They argue that everything
and anything is justified if it helps to get a Democrat back in the White House; some of them add that "of
course" Obama doesn't believe any of the things he is now saying to woo the "redneck states" and that once
in the White House he will revert to his "true beliefs".
How
can we trust Obama? Barack Obama's position on the issues is a work in progress. When he
was seeking the Democratic nomination for president he was saying one thing. Now that he has a lock on
it, he's doing some 180 degree turns. Change is the theme of Obama — change to suit what is
politically convenient.
New Obama makeover?
Soon after Americans for Democratic Action endorsed Barack Obama last month, its leaders were e-mailing deep
concerns over his flip-flops on the ADA's bedrock liberal beliefs. With his party's presidential nomination
secure and Democrats rallying behind him, the ultra-liberal freshman senator was making a mad dash to the
political center in preparation for the general election.
Shooting From Both Sides of His Mouth.
Reaction to last week's historic Supreme Court decision overturning the D.C. ban on guns illustrates how far the
American people have come in embracing and understanding the Second Amendment. Democrats have accepted
that they have been on the losing side, so much so that their presidential nominee is whitewashing his
radical anti-gun record.
Liberals Livid
at Obama's Right Turn. Barack Obama's recent rightward lurch on key issues is causing a revolt
among left-wing bloggers and activists, who had been his earliest and most ardent supporters. "Obama's
not just moving to the center for the general [election], he's practically denouncing and rejecting every
progressive voice in the country," fumes Danner Kline, who blogs in Alabama for his Web site, 9Numbers.com.
Obama Would Be A Clinton Third Term.
First, Obama thought it best to castigate Wright's critics, and deflect criticism by attempting to point out
faults among the race of Wright's presumed detractors, including Obama's own white grandmother. Then,
when this ploy proved ineffective, Obama did the exact thing he had previously insisted he would not do, which
was to disavow Wright who was, it turns out, expendable.
Barack, We Hardly Knew You! For
more than four decades, the Democrats' argument in support of campaign finance-public funding has been constant: We
must assure "a level playing field" between the two parties. … Obama, it is now clear, was all for a level playing
field until the 2008 playing field tilted overwhelmingly in his favor.
Obama's Halo Seriously
Flickering. Barack Obama had a choice between keeping his word on public financing or reaping a windfall of
hundreds of millions of dollars from unrestrained fund-raising, and in true American fashion, he chose the money. The
decision is widely viewed as pragmatic — after all, he's trying to win an election here, not run an exhibition
on consistency. But for those dazzled by promises of reform, Obama's reversal has the scales falling from their
eyes — a recognition that he is, beneath all the hype, a politician who acts in his best interests.
Obama Living Large. As the
Great Reformer of American campaign finance, Arizona Senator John McCain is about to be hoisted on a petard of
his own making. Obama will be lambasted for supposedly violating an earlier pledge to work out some kind
of agreement with McCain to come up with a fine-tuned, optimal, perfectly calibrated amount of campaign money
to be spent by each side, presumably within the speech-rationing framework of the federal campaign law.
Fogettaboutit. He changed his mind.
The Mendacity
of Hype: [Obama] was going to "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to
preserve a publicly financed general election." Later, he expanded on that to say, "I will sit down with
John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody." Well, McCain is still
waiting for that sit-down. Turns out, Obama is all about the money.
Obama Flip-Flops on Public Campaign Funds.
Barack Obama's decision not to take public funds for the general election was a total reversal, breaking a promise
made when he thought he couldn't succeed without it and that no Republican could succeed with it. Republican
candidate John McCain — known for his dedication to campaign finance "reform" is sticking with public
financing, to his likely disadvantage. Obama has once again proven himself to be a rank hypocrite in favor
of "reform" only when it will not hurt his election prospects.
Obama's money problems:
Barack Obama promised to accept public financing of his general election campaign. This commitment earned
him support among some liberals in the primary campaign. But after clinching the Democratic nomination,
he broke his promise (a nasty habit of his) and opted out of public financing, believing in his own powers —
not just to stop the melting of the ice caps but also to continue to raise massive amounts of money.
Can Barack
Buy the Presidency? On the money front, how do Sens. Obama and McCain stack up? No contest,
it seems. Since the campaign began, Mr. Obama has raised a staggering $295-plus million, versus
Mr. McCain's almost $122 million. But that's misleading. Mr. Obama spent a lot to
win the nomination.
Barack
Obama's broken promise to African village: It is an extraordinary sight to walk into a basic
two-room house under a mango tree in rural east Africa and discover what is essentially a shrine to Barack
Obama. The small brick house with no running water, a tin roof and roving chickens, goats and cows is
owned by Sarah Obama, Barack's 86-year-old step-grandmother.
The flip-flop
chronicles: Living down to his motto as the candidate of change, Senator Barack Hussein
Obama (D-IL) has changed his mind again. The most recent change is a campaign television ad on Bill
Clinton's welfare reform legislation, praising that it reduced welfare rolls by 80 percent.
Whoops! Obama leaves out … that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the
caseload reduction.
Obama's
Efforts to Fund the Self-Described 'Most Aggressive Group in the Gun Control Movement': Yesterday
I wrote that despite Barack Obama's claims that he believes in the Second Amendment, is a friend to gun owners,
never supported a complete ban on handguns (despite a questionnaire from early in his career stating he did),
etc., those claims are hard to balance with his approval of Chicago's effective ban on handguns. In
Obama's entire time in the city, there's no record of him ever objecting to it. Obama's audacity on
this issue goes even further.
Media Darling Flips And Flops
His Way To The Center. Obama's long march to the center has begun. And why not? What's
the downside? He won't lose the left, or even mainstream Democrats. They won't stay home on
Nov. 4. The anti-Bush, anti-Republican sentiment is simply too strong. Election Day is their
day of revenge — for the Florida recount, for Swift-boating, for all the injuries, real and imagined,
dealt out by Republicans over the last eight years.
Obama: Riding Tall In The
Straddle. Obama claims he believes the Second Amendment says you can own a gun but that local
communities can still opt out of the Constitution. … Obama has developed an almost Clintonesque ability
to take both sides of an issue.
Pretzel
Logic. Barack Obama is under hostile fire for changing his position on the D.C. gun ban.
Oh, I'm sorry. He didn't change his position, apparently. He reworded a clumsy statement.
That, at least, is what his campaign is saying.
Obama, Adrift.
What does Barack Obama truly believe? Does it depend on the day of the week? True, candidates
typically tack to the center after contentious primaries. But the "candidate of change" is taking that
process to Twilight Zone levels.
Obama's Leftist
Armies: [The] leftist "netroots" are none too pleased with Obama's feint to the center the past
few weeks, his "capitulation" on retroactive immunity for telecoms for cooperating with the government to
monitor terrorist communications, his alleged disagreement with the Supreme Court for invalidating the death
penalty for child rapists, and his flip-flop on the D.C. handgun case. They are abuzz about the
messiah's apparent abandonment of their orthodoxy.
Is Obama turning out to be just another politician?
From the beginning, Barack Obama's special appeal was his vow to remain an idealistic outsider, courageous and
optimistic, and never to shift his positions for political expediency, or become captive of the Inside-the-Beltway
intelligentsia, or kiss up to special interests and big money donors. In recent weeks, though, Obama has
done all those things.
The Vast Left Wing
Conspiracy: [Scroll down] Emerging swiftly from the text [of Ron Arnold's book,
Freezing in the Dark] is the way the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Act transformed how politics was
to be funded. Little wonder that Sen. Obama abandoned his pledge to work within the constraints of
federal campaign funding in favor of raising gobs of money from the Internet and the traditional supporters of
anything and anyone labeled liberal, progressive. Never mind that the Communist Party USA also supports
Obama. It must surely just be a coincidence.
Obama's
Dodge on Handguns. Obama's dilemma was that his reading of a Second Amendment that "means
something" made it difficult for him to say the D.C. law was constitutional. His public pronouncements
were so imprecise that the Associated Press mistakenly reported that he "voiced support" for the handgun ban
at a February news conference in Milwaukee.
The Last
Frontier of Flip Flops. Ed Morrissey has a great post up at Hot Air about Obama's advisors
giving three different answers to the question of where the candidate stands on Iraq in a matter of days.
Reading what his advisers are saying, you begin to see how Obama has been able to appear to be all things to
all people on his Iraq withdrawal plans while dishonestly pandering to his base.
Left lacks leverage to stop Obama's rightward
tack. The liberal blogosphere has lit up with outrage, bemoaning how the man who promised to
move beyond politics as usual is, well, engaging in politics as usual. Some have vowed to refocus their
energy and donations toward progressive candidates further down the ballot. But they will still vote
for Obama, not Ralph Nader, the onetime darling of the left, and certainly not Senator McCain.
Also known as Barack-lash... Barack
Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash. 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.
Obama's Flip-Flops Bamboozle the Left!
As a rock star, Obama would probably be a terrific candidate; in fact, he would be nearly unbeatable. But
being commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation on earth is a bit more challenging that that. Indeed,
when one is running for the presidency, voters expect the candidate to state his positions clearly and to
stick to them. However, much to the chagrin of dim wits at moveon.orgy and other lefty goons, Barack
Obama has started backing away from his agenda of change on an almost daily basis.
Flipping and
flopping. It's a good thing many of Barack Obama's supporters don't care much about issues, because their
candidate has been changing his position on them with dizzying speed. … When the Supreme Court overturned the District of
Columbia ban on handgun ownership June 26, Mr. Obama said he supported the decision of the 5-4 majority. But
last November he told the Chicago Tribune he thought the D.C. handgun ban was constitutional.
Is his
campaign dishonest or disorganized? After claiming in May that he would debate John McCain "anytime, any
place," Obama declined to participate in a series of 10 town hall-style meetings, which the McCain campaign proposed.
Early in the month, it became clear that the head of Obama's VP search committee, Jim Johnson, was compromised by his ties
to the subprime lender Countrywide. Obama called the story "overblown and irrelevant." Two days later Johnson
was cashiered.
Lurching
With Abandon. Barack Obama went out of his way to create the impression that he was a new kind of
political leader — more honest, less cynical and less relentlessly calculating than most. You
would be able to listen to him without worrying about what the meaning of "is" is. This is why so
many of Senator Obama's strongest supporters are uneasy, upset, dismayed and even angry at the candidate who
is now emerging in the bright light of summer.
He's Not The Barack Obama Barack Obama Knew.
Obama's tack to the center is simply what happens when the Senate's most liberal member ventures off Capitol Hill and faces
intractable reality. It's what happens when a community organizer with radical friends becomes a global player with
deadly enemies. You can talk about the failures of Iraq until your face turns blue, but can't very well tell David
Petraeus to pack it in because his efforts were for naught.
Obama's Hot Air: Barack Obama's
young supporters are discovering that their candidate is hardly the champion of the "new politics" he promised
to be. Now that their primary and caucus votes are safely counted, and Hillary Clinton has been dispatched
back to the Senate, the Democratic presidential candidate elect is racing toward the political center.
Barack Obama's flip-flopping his
way to the presidency. Obama approved of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Second Amendment
right to bear arms. He also disapproved of a high court decision striking down the death penalty in the case of the
rape of a child. His comments put him foursquare in the camp of Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito, to the
horror of the far left. The presumptive Democratic nominee sounded a lot like George W. Bush recently in
supporting federal funding of faith-based programs. As for Iraq, Obama has modified his call for the withdrawal
of U.S. forces within 16 months of his taking office.
Obama and the AFT: During the primary
campaign, in Wisconsin, Mr. Obama had suggested he would be open to vouchers if empirical research showed that they
improved educational outcomes. His new stance — the latest in what seems like a never-ending series
of flip-flops — seems to foreclose any support of vouchers, ever, no matter what the research shows.
Obama
101: What Obama hopes his more radical followers will not notice is that he is no longer
speaking of "withdrawal." He also hopes to hide the fact that by telling the Iraqi leaders that a
putative Obama administration might scrap agreements reached with the Bush team, he might have delayed the
start of a process that should lead to a withdrawal of U.S. forces within a mutually agreed timeframe.
Obama vs. his staff: Just
hours after his campaign issued a first statement yesterday ripping the addition of Sarah Palin to the
Republican ticket, Barack Obama backed away from that statement — or at least its tone —
and said that his own campaign had misrepresented him.
Obama's campaign gaffes and blunders
Obama gets away with a lot of embarrassing blunders that would have sunk a candidate like Bob Dole or Dan
Quayle. He has been given the benefit of the doubt by the very sympathetic and cooperative press
corps.
Biden's
oops moment in SF: "Giants on their way to Super Bowl". The comment by Biden drew immediate
"good-natured" boos from the crowd, according to the report by Josh Richman of the Oakland Tribune, who was
the only local print reporter allowed to cover the event.
Barack's Obama-isms:
The gaffes Barack Obama has committed would have crushed the typical Republican politician. But the reporters
who can't get over Dan Quayle's misspelling of "potato" have little to say about their man's slip-ups.
In stunning slip on national TV, Obama
refers to "my muslim faith". In one of the most astonishing gaffes in American political history,
in a national televised interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulus, Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Hussein Obama referred to "my muslim faith," confirming what researchers and political opponents have been
claiming. While Stephanopoulus several seconds later tried to correct him, saying "Christian faith," it
was too late. The damage was done.
Obama
is a Fan of Chinese Ports, Trains, and Airports. Obama, yesterday: "Everybody's watching
what's going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has
spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us
now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think, 'Beijing
looks like a pretty good option.'"
Obama emotionally
recalls fallen soldier: What's his name? Getting some notice — not enough — is
Obama's failure to remember the name of the fallen soldier on his bracelet. ... He could not recall the name on the
bracelet and needed to look down to his non-electronic version of a teleprompter. Yes, I am sure Obama is moved
by the death of a soldier he could not even name — despite wearing the bracelet every day (does anyone
really believe he wears it daily? It is possible, I suppose. But he did not recall the name of the
fallen soldier).
Barack
Obama's Top Ten Campaign Gaffes: Barack Obama's surrogates have been trying to convince the American
people that his judgment is so impeccable that his lack of experience is irrelevant. However, it's hard to
make that case when the candidate in question is the single biggest gaffe machine to hit American politics since
Howard Dean. You think Joe Biden cranks out a lot of dumb quips? Well, Biden is a rank amateur
compared to Obama.
Barack Obama: Gaffe
machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout
the campaign: Last May, he claimed that Kansas tornadoes killed a whopping 10,000 people: "In case
you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire
town destroyed." The actual death toll: 12.
Obama's
Propagandistic Iconography. Obama's most recent graphic arrogance took the form of a faux "great
seal" similar to the one seen on the podium of the president of the United States. On Friday, June 20,
Obama met with a dozen Democratic governors in Chicago. The room featured a nice nameplate for each governor,
but in front of Barack Obama was displayed an amazing bit of presumption in the form of a seal saying "Obama for
America" and taking the form of an official seal the sort one might find from a government office.
Obama campaign drops
seal on podium. After days of media mockery, Barack Obama has decided to stop using a
presidential-looking seal that his campaign designed and affixed to his podium on Friday. Journalists
said the seal, which features an eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch, smacks of arrogance. John
McCain's camp had a field day, calling the seal "laughable, ridiculous, preposterous and
revealing — all at the same time."
It's All About Obama. Many candidates have
measured the Oval Office drapes prematurely. But Barack Obama is the first to redesign the presidential seal before the
election. His seal featured an eagle emblazoned with his logo, and included a Latin version of his campaign slogan.
This was an attempt by Sen. Obama to make himself appear more presidential. But most people saw in the seal something
else — chutzpah — and he's stopped using it.
Obama's Symbolic Blunder:
The Obama campaign's latest faux pas has come and gone (to the relief of almost everybody) with the
decision to retire the "pre-presidential"seal. This is one of those incidents marked by questions that will
never be answered, such as what could the campaign have possibly been thinking, and what is the appropriate
punishment for whoever came up with the idea?
American flag disappears from Obama campaign
jet. As part of a month-long aircraft makeover, a painted American flag was removed from the tail of
Sen. Barack Obama's official campaign airplane and was replaced with the presidential candidate's trademark
"O" symbol.
The Flag in
the Lapel. Now we know why Obama took the American flag off his lapel. On July 24, in
Berlin, he told us. The American flag is too small to contain him. He is not comfortable being an
American citizen, only fully comfortable as a citizen of the world.
Barack Potatoe
Obama? Imagine that John McCain named a young running mate to campaign with him, and this national
rookie suggested America had 58 states, repeatedly used the wrong names for the cities he was visiting,
and honored a Memorial Day crowd by acknowledging the "fallen heroes" who were present, somehow alive and standing
in the audience. How long would it take for the national media to see another Dan Quayle caricature? … This
scenario is very real, except it isn't McCain. It's the other fellow.
Who Is
Obama? Where Is the Press? For those of us who suspect but cannot yet prove that Barack
Obama is a genuine radical leftist, his lack of much of a voting record is going to make it difficult to prove
what his real values, policies and motives are to be president. This is particularly the case because the
media is so obviously going to give Obama cover not only for his current revelatory gaffes but also for
embarrassing bits from his past.
Obama's
Metastatic Gaffe: When the House of Representatives takes up arms against $4 gas by voting 324-84
to sue OPEC, you know that election-year discourse has entered the realm of the surreal. Another unmistakable
sign is when a presidential candidate makes a gaffe, then, realizing it is too egregious to take back without
suffering humiliation, decides to make it a centerpiece of his foreign policy.
Yes we can! Yes we can! Obama says U.S. can't
drill its way out of gas price crisis. As gas prices top $4 a gallon around the Fox Valley, Sen. Barack Obama
said a reduction in consumption, not new domestic drilling, will provide relief. "If we reduce our consumption of oil,
that's what will reduce gas prices. There's really no other way of doing it," the presumptive Democratic nominee
said….
The Editor says...
I guess he understands demand, but not supply.
Obama
and The Don't Drill Democrats To America: Don't Drive. When Barack Obama told a Pennsylvania
audience this past weekend that "We can't drill our way out of this," he was repeating the same line that Nancy
Pelosi used days earlier and that Harry Reid used on Wednesday [6/18/2008]. The Big Three Democrats are
thus all agreed that their party has given up on bringing down the cost of oil and thus the cost of gas at
the pump.
Obama
on oil drilling: 'Not a long-term solution'. Drilling for oil off the US coast has the
support of John McCain and President Bush, but not Barack Obama. Despite a plea to Congress by Bush
today [6/19/2008], the Illinois Democrat rejected lifting the drilling moratorium that has been backed by presidents
of both parties for nearly two decades. "This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term
relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular,"
Obama said.
The Obama Gaffe Machine:
For months, Barack Obama has had the image of an incandescent, golden-tongued Wundercandidate. That image may be
fraying now. As smart and credentialed as he is, Sen. Obama is often an indifferent speaker without a teleprompter.
He has large gaps in his knowledge base, and is just as likely to dig in and embrace a policy misstatement as abandon it.
ABC reporter Jake Tapper calls him "a one-man gaffe machine."
Give
Obama the potato test. He generates even more gaffes than Dan Quayle. "We have not
exhausted our nonmilitary options in confronting the Iranian threat; in many ways, we have yet to try
them," Sen. Barack Obama says on his Web site. "If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for
terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization." It was Albert
Einstein who first defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results."
Obama
Campaign Scrambles to Correct the Record on Uncle's War Service. Barack Obama's campaign scrambled Tuesday to
set the record straight about remarks the Democratic presidential candidate made on Memorial Day where he said his uncle helped
liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II. There were two obvious problems with the
tale: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army, and Obama's American mother was an only child.
On the other hand... Barack Obama's Big Mistake:
The Barack Obama campaign is floundering not because of gaffes, but because of its success. They have
portrayed their candidate and his message precisely the way they want to. They have controlled every
media situation. They have not been plagued by a rash of mistakes in the last few weeks. The Obama
campaign is drowning because Americans simply do not like the message.
Joe Biden brings his own gaffes and baggage
This subsection has moved to a page of its own,
located here.
Post-election gaffes
on the part of Vice-President Biden
This subsection has moved to a page of its own,
located here.
Examples of pro-Obama favoritism in the press
This section has moved to a new page, located
here.
It pays to be obsequious
Reporters are welcome to travel on Obama's private jet as long
as they have pleasant things to say about him. If they
aren't subservient to Obama, suddenly there's no room on the plane!
Off the
plane. Obama spokesman Bill Burton confirms Drudge's report that two right-leaning
papers, the Washington Times and the New York Post, have lost their seats on the Obama plane,
along with the Dallas Morning News.
Obama
Campaign Gives Washington Times the Boot. In what could be seen as a disturbing sign for
the future, the Barack Obama presidential campaign has blocked the Washington Times newspaper from
traveling with the Democratic nominee in the final days of the election.
Washington
Times to fly commercial for Obama finale. The Washington Times plans to fly commercial to
cover the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the final days of his campaign, and will be
in Chicago for Election Day coverage. The Washington Times, which has covered the Barack Obama
campaign from the start, was kicked off the Democrat's campaign plane for the final 72 hours of
the race. The Obama campaign informed the newspaper Thursday evening of its decision, which came
two days after The Times editorial page endorsed Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama.
Obama:
You don't endorse me? You're off the plane! A lot of talk this morning about Barack Obama's
plane and a decision to boot reporters from the New York Post, Dallas Morning News and the Washington Times
from traveling on O-Force One. The campaign says it's due to lack of space. But many others see
something else. ... These news outlets all endorsed John McCain.
A
Nixonesque Move from Team Obama. Team Obama veered off message yesterday [10/31/2008], kicking off
the campaign bus reporters from three newspapers deemed unfriendly to the campaign — The New York Post,
The Dallas Morning News and The Washington Times. This is bipartisanship? The move is utterly at odds
with a central part of Obama's message: the idea that he's a different kind of candidate — one
who won't demonize opponents or critics, but will instead work hard to bring people together.
Press plane ejection fits in
pattern. Reporter Christina Bellantoni of The Washington Times will be kicked off of Barack Obama's
campaign plane starting Nov. 2, making it much more difficult to cover the candidate during the critical final
days of the election. The Obama campaign insists that politics had nothing to do with it. We note that
all three newspapers that had reporters booted from the plane — The Times, the New York Post and the
Dallas Morning News -- endorsed John McCain. An Obama spokesman insists that it is just a coincidence.
Air Obama's not-so-friendly skies. The
skies haven't been so friendly on Air Obama after the campaign decided on Thursday to pull the seats for reporters from
The Washington Times, New York Post and Dallas Morning News — all papers that endorsed John
McCain — after Saturday [11/1/2008].
The Editor says...
Who would want to fly on Obama's plane anyway? From what I've read,
it stinks!
Seeing How The
Other Half Lives: The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama's, which is
cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks
manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated.
Obama Campaign Turns on Media. If
Obama can afford millions of dollars for a 30-minute multi-network infomercial, he certainly can afford to
rent another jet for four days to accommodate more media. No, this isn't about space. It's about
punishment.
A defeat -- and yet, all is
not lost. American conservatives can celebrate one historic triumph: The performance
of the New Media in this election. We can't lose sight of the fact that the New Media managed to
expose Obama and his lifelong network. We did the job of real journalism. Any American
who wanted to know the truth was able to find it out with a few clicks on a keyboard. That
is real journalism, not the phony imitation from the Old Media and its camp followers. There is
no secret any longer about the ideology of these people, or about their close alliances with Islamic
radicals, destructive Leftist billionaires and Saudi influence buyers. There is no doubt about
their deep and entrenched roots in the Chicago Machine. Chicago Mayor Daley is on the transition
team, and Chicago hardball pol Rahm Emanuel is the White House Chief of Staff. This is the dream
team of demagogues like J-Wright, Bill Ayers, Louis Farrakhan, and our sworn enemies abroad. About
half the voters know it, and they will not forget it.
Obama's Enemies List.
In the final days of the campaign, three newspapers that had endorsed McCain were booted from the Obama
campaign bus. The New York Post, Dallas Morning News, and Washington Times
were unceremoniously shown the door only days after their papers' endorsements appeared. Obama campaign
officials claimed the move was to make room for more important media outlets: Jet and Ebony
entertainment magazines. Both publications were publishing fawning coverage of Obama. Those
heartened by the hope that a President Obama would be more tolerant of critics and criticism than a candidate
Obama had their expectations dashed.
