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POPS"A Bridge Too Far" For the past two weeks, Obama has moved quickly toward the center. He has reversed his previous positions for gun control, against using faith based institutions to deliver public services, against immunity for tele-communications companies that turn records over to the government in terror investigations, for raising Social Security taxes, for imposing the Fairness Doctrine on talk radio, and a host of other issues. In his effort to move to the center, Obama has distorted his own record, meager though it may be, and is taking credit for a program he strongly opposed. http://www.newsmax.com/morris/obama_ad_/2008/07/07/110599.html
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POPSObama's Flip-Flopping Caused By Evil Twin (alter-ego) In light of the recent changes in the current truth, it is important to understand which contradictory "flip-flopping" statement belongs to which twin. The officially registered "flip-flops" already include Public Financing, Guns, Iraq, FISA, Special Interests, NAFTA, the Cuba Embargo, Illegal Immigration, and Abortion. The list grows almost daily. Just a few examples: * Top Obama Flip-Flops * Collection of Obama Flip-Flops * Obama & McCain (cannot confirm a McCain evil twin) Flip-Flops The discovery of an evil twin comes as a huge relief to most Americans who otherwise might conclude that Obama is not a new transcendent-type messiah, but a usual Chicago-type lying politician. Luckily, nobody will have to contemplate the depth of Obama's perceived depravity anymore, because the existence of the evil twin changes everything.
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POPSObama's Okie Doke Obama voted against a ban on partial birth abortions. Americans support a ban by a margin of 66% to 28%. Obama supports affirmative action in public employment, contracting and university admissions. Americans oppose giving an advantage in these areas on the basis of race by a margin of 82% to 14%. Obama voted against a ban on partial birth abortions. Americans support a ban by a margin of 66% to 28%. Obama opposed the Induced Birth Infant Liability Act while in the Illinois state legislature, to prevent abortion providers from withholding medical care and sustenance from infants born after surviving an abortion attempt. Despite his equivocal statements regarding the recent Supreme Court decision striking down the D.C. gun ban, Obama has never met a gun ban he didn't like. While in the Illinois state legislature, Obama voted against parental notification requirements for abortions for minors. Americans support parental notification laws by a margin of 79% to 17%.
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POPSDr. Seuss: The Amazing Obama Flip Flop Machine McCain’s still trying to get some traction. But when he points to my lies, I just call it a “distraction.” I laugh and I smile and charm the voters relentless. And in November, I hope they’re defenseless. If I con enough voters before they catch on, I’ll have a big party on the White House lawn.
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POPSUnabashadly Unprincipled "Normally, flip-flopping presidential candidates have to worry about the press. Not Obama. After all, this is a press corps that heard his grandiloquent Philadelphia speech — designed to rationalize why “I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my white grandmother” — then wiped away a tear and hailed him as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. Three months later, with Wright disowned, grandma embraced and the great “race speech” now inoperative, not a word of reconsideration is heard from his media acolytes." "Remember his pledge to stick to public financing? Now flush with cash, he is the first general-election candidate since Watergate to opt out." "When it’s time to throw campaign finance reform, telecom accountability, NAFTA renegotiation or Jeremiah Wright overboard, Obama is not sentimental. He does not hesitate. He tosses lustily." Why, the man even tossed his own grandmother overboard
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POPSAfter the Primaries - Politics as Usual
Normally, flip-flopping presidential candidates have to worry about the press. Not Obama. After all, this is a press corps that heard his grandiloquent Philadelphia speech -- designed to rationalize why "I can no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I can disown my white grandmother" - then wiped away a tear and hailed him as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. 3 months later, with Wright disowned, grandma embraced and the great "race speech" now inoperative, not a word of reconsideration is heard from his media acolytes. Worry about the press? His FISA flip-flop elicited a few grumbles, but hardly a murmur from the mainstream press. Remember his pledge to stick to public financing? Now flush with cash, he is the first general-election candidate since Watergate to opt out. Some goo-goo clean-government types chided him, but the mainstream editorialists who for years had been railing against private financing as hopelessly corrupt and corrupting evinced only the mildest disappointment.
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POPSObama: It's Only About Winning
But here's what's scary: For all of Kerry's reputed smoothness and Eastern intellect, he often tied himself in knots trying to reconcile his absurdly opposing positions. Obama can flip and flop with unmatched alacrity and facility and with the absence of self-consciousness and accountability of an accomplished sociopath . This guy doesn't even acknowledge he's changing positions; he does it without breaking a sweat and never looks back. I ask you to consider the common thread underlying these turnarounds his nearly immediate backtracking on whether Iran poses a serious threat to America; his progressive position shifts on Iraq from "don't go in, stay in, and get out"; and his vigorous defense then abandonment of both his pastor and his church. The common thread, in a word, is expedience. It is not toughness; it is not savvy; it is not gravitas; and by all means, it is not admirable. Barack Obama is every bit as politically calculating as Bill Clinton but twice as smooth.
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POPSThe New Meaning Of "Politics Of Change" * Obama repeatedly vowed to meet with various heads of terror states - most notably Ahmadinejad of Iran - "without preconditions." Then, with the nomination in sight, he zigzagged: "There's no reason why we would necessarily meet with Ahmadinejad. He's not the most powerful person in Iran." * In October, he supported NAFTA expansion. In March, campaigning in the Ohio primary, he called for a "reopening" of the trade pact's terms. This week, he called his own primary rhetoric "overheated" and said NAFTA has had a positive effect on the US economy. Change, yes. But "change we can believe in"?
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POPSAnd the end of political apathy. Let's keep it simple, folks. It's not NAFTA or Social Security that will beat McCain. It's 3 dollar milk, shrinking wages, skyrocketing gas prices and a war that has delivered nothing but three dollar milk, shrinking wages and skyrocketing gas prices.
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POPSDemocratic Candidates Long To Renegotiate NAFTA U.S. manufacturing is not in decline. Quite the opposite is true. Output, revenues and profits in the sector all achieved records in 2006, and preliminary government data indicates that new records were set in 2007. American factories remain the world's most prolific, producing 2.5 times the value of Chinese output. ... Between 2000 and 2003 there was a pronounced manufacturing recession, during which 2.8 million jobs in the sector were eliminated. The two candidates extrapolate from that statistic to assert that 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000 on account of bad trade deals, like NAFTA, as though the trend were continuing. That's wrong. ... If trade had something to do with the loss of those 2.8 million jobs between 2000 and 2003, imports weren't the culprit. Manufactured imports did not increase at all during those three years. U.S. exports, however, dropped off by 11 percent during that precise period.
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POPSNation Agrees Not To Talk About Politics A Zogby International poll conducted last week reflected the country's distaste for political debate. When asked if they preferred the Republican emphasis on national security or the more Democratic commitment to domestic issues, 73 percent of respondents agreed to disagree on the matter and just leave it at that; 16 percent called the topic of Obama versus Clinton "touchy" and not worth talking about if it could offend someone; and 11 percent said that for the sake of everyone having a good, hassle-free year, it is probably best to just let it go and not worry about who the 44th president will be. In addition, nine out of 10 Americans polled stressed that with the dollar's poor performance and record-high gas prices, this is neither the time nor the place to be talking about politics in the first place.
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POPSPopulism at its worst He will repeal free trade acts and raise taxes (Barack). How many people out there think that is good for the economy? "Jeez , mister I know gas prices are through the roof but we need to raise your taxes another 15%. Sorry."
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POPSTo Die For NAFTA Hillary won Ohio denouncing the NAFTA deal Bill Clinton cut. The lady gets it. McCain admits to knowing almost nothing about economics and is now being advised by my old friend Jack Kemp. In a Wall Street Journal essay bemoaning my views, Kemp concedes, "I'm on the advisory board of Toyota North America and now drive a hybrid Lexus." Ex-secretaries of state and Cabinet officers, ex-senators and congressmen, and ex-White House aides are getting rich working for foreigners who are carting off American jobs, American technology, American markets, American factories -- and America's future. Look at the Bush-McCain record: $4 trillion in trade deficits, $2.5 trillion in manufactures alone. One in every six manufacturing jobs, 3 million, gone. With America borrowing $2 billion a day to pay for foreign goods, we have seen a collapse of the dollar, the price of gold quadruple to $1,000 an ounce, oil soar to $107 a barrel and gas heading toward $4 a gallon.
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POPSRescuing The Rust Belt.................. by Thomas Sowell Japanese auto makers like Toyota and Honda are hiring thousands of American workers. But they are not hiring them in the rust belts. They are avoiding the rust belts, just as domestic businesses are avoiding the high costs that have been piled on over the years by both unions and governments in the rust belt regions. Where does NAFTA come into the picture? International trade is just one of the many ways in which the competition of lower cost producers can cause higher cost producers to lose customers and jobs. Jobs are always disappearing. The big question is why they are not being replaced by new jobs. Rust belt policies that drove out old jobs also keep out new jobs. NAFTA makes it easier for politicians to blame the problem on foreigners. In fact, foreigners make ideal scapegoats for politicians. After all, people in Japan or India can't vote in American elections.
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POPSWhat Obama Needs to Do Now That speech should be delivered at the international headquarters of the United Steelworkers of America in the city's downtown. Those are the practical steps that need to be taken. There is also a mental step that must be made. Obama and his aides need to recognize that Clinton did not win Ohio because voters trust her on trade. She won because she's made voters distrust Obama. Obama can win this nomination, and he may yet be able to do so with relative ease. But it won't be easy if he fails to he jettison those aides who would have him fuzz the margins of the trade debate -- which will be essential to the debate in upcoming primary states such as Pennsylvania -- and unless he makes it a whole lot clearer that he really is the candidate of change.
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POPS WIll This Be A Horserace? Obama's campaign argues that this is less a race about winning states and more about winning delegates. But winning pledged delegates alone probably won't get him the nomination, as long as Clinton remains in the race, splitting the haul to the end. The recent sharpening of the argument Clinton has pressed, along with outside events, may have helped her stem the tide. Her campaign in Texas launched a much-discussed ad raising questions about Obama's readiness to handle a crisis as president. Obama's campaign got caught up in a series of revised statements about what one of his economic advisers said to a Canadian official about NAFTA. Meanwhile, the trial of Chicago developer Tony Rezko, a former Obama supporter, thrust that issue back into the headlines.
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