Alright, you’ve forced my hand, I need to show my cards: I can’t deny that Obama is conveniently changing his stance–I’m personally sick and appalled at FISA, and with Obama’s support of the legislation. I choose to hold on to a few of the ‘knowns’ about his past:

- He was schooled in politics in Chicago, where even being nice starts with being ruthless.

- He has the most liberal voting record in the Senate (well, until recently that is…)

- He began his career as a community organizer, foregoing wealth in his 20s for the chance at making a difference in his community.

There are a few more I could list but I think that gets my point across.

The bottom line for me is that Obama is a politician, and that as a politician he skirts the fine lines between idealism, pragmatism, and, yes, possibly selling out. Those who view Obama as an idealist wish him to take a broom to American politics and policy. I wish that could be the case, even as I know it would likely fail. Those familiar with Clinton (W. that is) and Gore’s first budget know that even with the best of intentions policy must be compromised to be approved (Gore fought hard to introduce a carbon tax in the ’93 budget – but Congress was far from ready for the Greenshift ).

Those who view Obama as selling out believe that because he is moving towards the centre he is turning away from his visionary principles. His recent ‘panders’ to the right represent exact the kind of gas tax holiday stance he opposed in the primary.

I can only say that my own belief is somewhere in the middle, that as a pragmatic, ruthless Chigaco style politician, who truly wants to achieve the best for his country, Obama is making the compromises on the issues he considers secondary, so that he will be able to one day make the decisions on the primary issues that will directly affect the future of his country.

Although I personally would never view or use FISA as a compromise, I can only trust that Obama is doing so because his own plan is much larger, and in his own political context he views FISA as an acceptable sacrifice in his struggle to reach across the aisle.

Cheers,

Mark

Fair enough, but you’re conveniently forgetting that the rhetoric has changed considerably pre and post primary season. It’s not flip flopping, everybody does it, but it is an acknowledgement that Obama isn’t as unique as people liked to believe.

How did you expect Obama to accomplish the coalition that he promised, of the same magnitude as Reagan only progressive rather than reactive?

Those accusing Obama of flip-flopping do not understand the central promise of his primary campaign: to set poisonous Washington partisan politics aside.

If I could vote in the US presidential election, I would support Barack Obama. If he starts to immitate John McCain, I would vote for the real thing instead.

“Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed”

Obama is now cowtowing to Conservatives. So much for “change”….