(Untitled)

[littlekitkin]

Flip-Flop Flap
by Hendrik Hertzberg
July 21, 2008

One of the World Wide Web’s most distinguished organs of fake news, the Borowitz Report, leads its current issue with this flash:

The liberal blogosphere was aflame today with new accusations that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) is trying to win the 2008 presidential election.Except that sometimes it’

Comments

[3_cubic_feet]

A couple of blogs have pointed out (I think Andrew Sullivan was one who mentioned it) that Obama's sharp turn to the center has been followed by a drop in the polls.

So, if he's doing it for the sake of political expedience, perhaps he should rethink!

I also think that some of the "centrist" positions he's taking up are centrist in being less liberal, but not centrist in appealing to the politically non-partisan voters that Obama should now be trying to pick up.

In particular FISA. A number of people I know who consider themselves neither Republican nor Democrat -- and are hostile to the Democrats' perceived association with government-supported social program -- take privacy issues and civil liberties very, very seriously. One friend in particular messaged me about FISA, calling it a sign that both Republicans and Democrats are "just the same" in trampling individual rights.

I don't agree with him of course, but his is a non-partisan swing vote that Obama may have lost by his move toward "centrism".

[schmiss]

Obama's sharp turn to the center

Did you read the article? Most of these so-called turns are no such thing. FISA and public funding are the only real issues here, and the latter makes perfect sense. FISA, not so much, but I can understand the reasoning behind it too.

[quinatorte]

Barack Obama, the Democratic Presidential nominee, is a politician who's trying to win the Presidential election?

HOLY SHIT SOMEBODY STOP HIM.

But seriously, all the cries of "OMG FLIP-FLOP! HYPOCRITE!" hurled his way are getting out-of-hand, especially by people who don't even do their homework because it's easier to be ignorant and to continue steadfastly hating someone for petty, insubstantial reasons than to consider the possibility that they're wrong.

[heather]

iawtc. I mean okay, the FISA vote was a stretch (though I don't think it's as big a deal as people made it out to be), but there's no other issue on which he changed position. All they have to do is go back and read and listen to what he said.

I'm so frakkin happy that we finally have a democratic candidate who's in it to win it.

[arisma]

In all honesty, how can you say FISA is not as big a deal as people made it out to be? What would it take to actually BE a big deal to you?

[heather]

In all honesty? Don't get me wrong, the bill sucks, I hate it and it tramples over our constitutional rights. But the fact is the adminstration's been doing that for seven years and that bill doesn't enact anything that the government isn't already doing. Why pick now to get all mad at Obama about it? What would not passing the bill have accomplished? None of this is new.

I'm not going to ever agree with Obama 100%, so no, I didn't feel the need to freak out about it. *shrug*

[nikolovikis]

LOL! Damn, I didn't know he voted against the filibuster too. Wow.

[crazyventures]

Yeah, that's pretty shitty.

[schmiss]

I liked this when I read it in the New Yorker and like it now. Some of their "talk of the town"-type articles have been spot on cutting through the crybaby theatrics of conservatives & (I hate to say it) liberals alike.