We're beginning to understand why Barack Obama keeps protesting so vigorously against the prospect of "George Bush's third term." Maybe he's worried that someone will notice that he's the candidate who's running for it.
Most Presidential candidates adapt their message after they win their party nomination, but Mr. Obama isn't merely "running to the center." He's fleeing from many of his primary positions so markedly and so rapidly that he's embracing a sizable chunk of President Bush's policy. Who would have thought that a Democrat would rehabilitate the much-maligned Bush agenda?
Take the surveillance of foreign terrorists. Last October, while running with the Democratic pack, the Illinois Senator vowed to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies" that assisted in such eavesdropping after 9/11. As recently as February, still running as the liberal favorite against Hillary Clinton, he was one of 29 Democrats who voted against allowing a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee reform of surveillance rules even to come to the floor.
Two weeks ago, however, the House passed a bill that is essentially the same as that Senate version, and Mr. Obama now says he supports it. Apparently legal immunity for the telcos is vital for U.S. national security, just as Mr. Bush has claimed. Apparently, too, the legislation isn't an attempt by Dick Cheney to gut the Constitution. Perhaps it is dawning on Mr. Obama that, if he does become President, he'll be responsible for preventing any new terrorist attack. So now he's happy to throw the New York Times under the bus.
Next up for Mr. Obama's political blessing will be Mr. Bush's Iraq policy. Only weeks ago, the Democrat was calling for an immediate and rapid U.S. withdrawal. When General David Petraeus first testified about the surge in September 2007, Mr. Obama was dismissive and skeptical. But with the surge having worked wonders in Iraq, this week Mr. Obama went out of his way to defend General Petraeus against MoveOn.org's attacks in 2007 that he was "General Betray Us." Perhaps he had a late epiphany.
Look for Mr. Obama to use his forthcoming visit to Iraq as an excuse to drop those withdrawal plans faster than he can say Jeremiah Wright "was not the person that I met 20 years ago." The Senator will learn as John McCain has been saying that withdrawal would squander the gains from the surge, set back Iraqi political progress, and weaken America's strategic position against Iran. Our guess is that he'll spin this switcheroo as some kind of conditional commitment, saying he'll stay in Iraq as long as Iraqis are making progress on political reconciliation, and so on. As things improve in Iraq, this would be Mr. Bush's policy too.
Mr. Obama has also made ostentatious leaps toward Mr. Bush on domestic issues. While he once bid for labor support by pledging a unilateral rewrite of Nafta, the Democrat now says he favors free trade as long as it works for "everybody." His economic aide, Austan Goolsbee, has been liberated from the five-month purdah he endured for telling Canadians that Mr. Obama's protectionism was merely campaign rhetoric. Now that Mr. Obama is in a general election, he can't scare the business community too much.
Back in the day, the first-term Senator also voted against the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. But last week he agreed with their majority opinion in the Heller gun rights case, and with their dissent against the liberal majority's ruling to ban the death penalty for rape. Mr. Obama seems to appreciate that getting pegged as a cultural lefty is deadly for national Democrats at least until November.
This week the great Democratic hope even endorsed spending more money on faith-based charities. Apparently, this core plank of Mr. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is not the assault on church-state separation that the ACLU and liberals have long claimed. And yesterday, Mr. Obama's campaign unveiled an ad asserting his support for welfare reform that "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Never mind that Mr. Obama has declared multiple times that he opposed the landmark 1996 welfare reform.
All of which prompts a couple of thoughts. The first is that Mr. Obama doesn't seem to think American political sentiment has moved as far left as most of the media claim. Another is that the next President, whether Democrat or Republican, is going to embrace much of Mr. Bush's foreign and antiterror policy whether he admits it or not. Think Eisenhower endorsing Truman's Cold War architecture.
Most important is the matter of Mr. Obama's political character and how honest he is being about what he truly believes. His voting record in the Senate and in Illinois, as well as his primary positions, would make him the most liberal Presidential candidate since George McGovern in 1972. But he clearly doesn't want voters to believe that in November. He's still the Obama Americans don't know.
#1
The "much maligned Bush agenda" is bad only because Bush is running it. By the same token, even jogging (which was good when Clinton was doing it) is bad because George Bush jogs. (Yes liberals were actually claiming this)
Obama (like John F'ing Kerry) is counting on Liberals realizing that this is just a charade, but all those dumb flyover Americans will be too stupid to notice.
God help us if he succeeds.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/03/2008 13:11 Comments ||
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#2
Look for Mr. Obama to use his forthcoming visit to Iraq as an excuse to drop those withdrawal plans faster than he can say Jeremiah Wright "was not the person that I met 20 years ago."
Code Pink loonies would flip out. That might be fun to watch.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/03/2008 14:50 Comments ||
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#3
Cause we know all about George's life long association with the likes of Rev. Wright and Mr. Ayers. Now just don't worry know you simple folk, it's all going to be alleft alright.
U.S. Republican presidential contender John McCain shook up his team Wednesday, in the wake of growing Republican concern about its ability to compete against Democratic rival Barack Obama. McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters that Steve Schmidt will take over day-to-day operations of the campaign.
Schmidt, a veteran of the 2004 presidential campaign of President George W. Bush, will be in charge of everything from messaging and communications to the political structure, organization and scheduling. His top priority will be to stop 'unforced errors in the campaign.'
Schmidt will be assisted by Mike McDonald, a fellow veteran of the Bush campaign.
Mike DuHaime, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's former campaign manager and another longtime associate of Schmidt, will also take on more responsibility.
McCain advisers reportedly said that the shakeup is a direct response to the missteps in previous messaging and scheduling that didn't give McCain a good platform, and a political structure that many thought was misguided.
John McCain has insisted that his trip through Mexico and Colombia was not supposed to be campaign-related. But there have been plenty of political overtones throughout. The Republican presidential hopeful planned an early morning visit Thursday to Mexico City's famed Basilica de Guadalupe before meeting with President Felipe Calderon as he concluded a three-day Latin American visit aimed at promoting free trade in the Western Hemisphere.
The Basilica de Guadalupe is Mexico's holiest site for Roman Catholics, and Catholic and Hispanic voters are expected to be key swing voters in the November election. McCain's Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has worked to woo Catholics and Hispanics as well after those groups voted heavily for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primary season.
McCain has said he planned to seek Calderon's help in addressing illegal immigration, a key issue for Hispanic and many conservative voters. The Arizona senator has called for increased security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
He also has spoken out in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the proposed Colombia Free Trade deal currently stalled in Congress. On Wednesday he said as president he might pursue a possible free trade agreement that would cover the entire Western Hemisphere.
Obama has spoken out against NAFTA and the Colombian free trade pact, both of which have been unpopular in important general election swing states like Ohio. McCain wants to help workers displaced by free trade agreements to receive job training and other benefits.
#1
Why can't McCain's handlers keep him away from the fucking Mexicans? They *have* to know by now that the amnesty/open borders thing is a lose/lose proposition for him. Everytime anyone gets any sort of momentum behind a base rally for McCain, the damnable amnesty thing gets pulled back into view, and everybody goes home mad.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/03/2008 10:10 Comments ||
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#2
Mexicans are fine, we have a LOT of work to do that requires their cooperation.
He could stay away from La Raza though.
#3
Mexicans ARE fine. No need to use the F-word on them. Their government is NOT fine and neither is ours. McCain, in particular, has turned a deaf ear to those of use who live in border states and have watched illegal immigration turn everything upside down. It's a sell out. Everybody knows it but nobody will say it. It could very well cost him the election.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/03/2008 11:33 Comments ||
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#4
I've got nothing for or against Mexicans, en masse or individually. I've got everything against McCain putting his dumb ass into Mexican-themed photo opportunities. Unlike a lot of base and movement conservatives, I could give a shit about immigration - in my part of Pennsylvania, we don't get illegals, we get Amish.
I'd be just as happy to just forget the whole damned subject for the next four years. Let the INS do its collective job for a change, whatever. There's a war to be won, and it isn't against the ghost of Pancho Villa.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/03/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a 'super super jumbo.' Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates. Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month. Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said the rate was adjusted to account for a competing offer from another lender and other factors.
'The Obamas have since had as much as $3 million invested through Northern Trust,' he said in a statement. Modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common among financial institutions as they compete for business or develop relationships with wealthy families. But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans.
Continued on Page 49
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
U.S. Republican presidential contender John McCain shook up his team Wednesday, in the wake of growing Republican concern about its ability to compete against Democratic rival Barack Obama. McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters that Steve Schmidt will take over day-to-day operations of the campaign. 
Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. 
