Flip-flopping to the White House

[Bea]

How Barack Obama and John McCain are changing positions on everything from wiretapping to taxes.

By Mike Madden

July 17, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- At first, when the chant started at the Republican convention four years ago, it was hard to figure out what was going on. What were George W. Bush's faithful shouting back and forth across Madison Square Garden at each other? And why, even before the night's first speaker had taken the podium, did it look like the GOP delegates were doing the wave?

Before long, though, the meaning became clear: the Republicans were chanting, "Flip," "Flop," "Flip," "Flop," alternating from one side of the arena to the other, and waving back and forth as they did it. The target, of course, was John Kerry, and in case you haven't noticed who's in the White House these days, the attack was a hit.

So it shouldn't be surprising that, in the same spirit, John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee are going after Barack Obama on similar grounds. Just in the last week, the RNC has sent out two detailed press releases titled "Obama vs. Obama," and forwarded around a few news articles with headlines like "Flipping and Flopping." Meanwhile, McCain and his aides and allies are hammering Obama for changing his mind on whether the troop surge in Iraq has helped calm the situation there. "It seems to me this is not just the kind of normal political flip-flop, back and forth," Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-independent who has become one of McCain's most aggressive surrogates, said on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning.

Admittedly, the goal this time is a little different -- the GOP is trying to paint Obama as just another politician, whose policy positions are determined by what helps him with voters, not by what he believes is right. (With Kerry, the idea was to make him look weak and waffling compared to Bush.) The basic strategy, though, is the same. Republicans will play up any shifts on issues, blasting Obama when he varies at all from what he's said in the past on everything from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Second Amendment to the death penalty.

In some cases -- foremost with warrantless wiretapping, where Obama went back on a pledge to filibuster the bill he wound up voting for -- the charges against Obama may be deserved. On others, like Iraq -- where Obama has said all along he'd seek guidance from the Pentagon on how best to withdraw U.S. troops within 16 months -- the shift is more in how he's talking about the issue, not what his essential policy is.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/07/17/flip_flop/

[Tinoire]

[link:www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=196&topic_id=12878|Obama No Different To McCain Says Chavez]

Both McCain and Obama have been positioning themselves for years. McCain to redeem his image from the Keating 5 scandal where he fleeced millions out of their savings and Obama to ride the nomination on the backs of activists.

One of the nmost endearing things Dean activists did during the 2003 Primaries was mass mail Kerry a ton of flip flops.

Unfortunately for Obama, the GOP isn't painting him as anything. He has been changing positions. The more specifics we're getting from Obama now after the vague, populist rhetoric he used during the Primaries, the worst he souunds.

I'm glad so many of us are catching on and making a stink about it.

Welcome to PI Bea! :hi:

[Bea]

I have always felt a distrust of Obama. I never bought into what to me seemed empty rhetoric. I still don't understand how so many people were enthralled by a man who talked pretty, but who never specified anything. To me they were just empty platitudes. I recoiled from the massive adoration of his fans (supporters is too mild a word) that was seen in the early months.

I'm also furious that what I, and many others, saw is now coming to fruition. His position "adjustments" are a slap to his base. I recently saw Sicko and cried out of sheer frustration. The one candidate remaining in the race, the one endorsed by the AMA and the Nurse's Association, the one who could have finally gotten us closer to universal healthcare was the one who we threw under the bus for the candidate with the inferior economic plan, inferior healthcare plan and zero foreign policy experience. And then we wonder why the world thinks that we are dangerous idiots!!!