GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
Seventeen of many more, I’m sure. This is courtesy of the McCain campaign and Marc Ambinder. Click the link to read them in their entirety; below are my summations. This is good stuff. My personal favorites are numbers 1, 2, 5, 7, 14, and 17.
1) Iraq
Position #1 (April 2008): Obama would withdraw all troops out of Iraq within 16 months - “no matter what the military commanders said… Because the commander-in-chief sets the mission, Charlie. That’s not the role of the generals.”
Position #2 (July 2008): Obama now commits to talking with the commanders on the ground to determine a timeline for withdrawal and says he “will continue to refine my policies.”
2) Public Financing
Position #1 (Nov 2007): A Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire asks, “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?” Obama’s answer: “Yes. I have been a long-time advocate for public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests.”
Position #2 (June 2008): Obama opts out of public financing, declaring the system broken.
3) NAFTA
Position #1 (Feb 2008): Obama pledges to Tim Russert to unilaterally renegotiate NAFTA, using a threat of backing out of the deal against Canada and Mexico to make them change the agreement.
Position #2 (June 2008): Obama says his words in Feb were “overheated and amplified” and “indicated he didn’t want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.”
4) Corporate Tax Cuts
Position #1 (May 2008): Obama calls corporate tax cuts “the exact wrong prescription for America.”
Position #2 (June 2008): The Wall Street Journal reports Obama is now open to corporate tax cuts: “Sen. Obama’s nod to lowering corporate taxes comes as Republicans have been attacking him for proposals that would raise the cost of doing business… He didn’t say how deeply he would cut the rate, but said it could be trimmed…”
5) D.C. Handgun Ban
Position #1 (Nov 2007): A statement from the Obama campaign asserts, “Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.” In Feb 2008, he reasserted his support for the ban.
Position #2 (June 2008): Obama states, “It looks to me that the D.C. handgun ban overshot the runway. That it went beyond constitutional limits.”
6) Welfare
Position #1 (May 1997): Obama says regarding the new federal welfare reform act, “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation, because I think it had some problems.” In July 2008, ABCNews says, “Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction.”
Position #2 (July 2008): Obama touts his role in “slashing welfare rolls” in a campaign advertisement, leaving viewers to think he supported/supports the legislation.
7) Energy Bill
Position #1 (2005): Obama voted in favor of the Bush administration energy bill.
Position #2 (2008): Obama criticizes the Bush administration for their energy bill and says “Make no mistake, this is an area where John McCain is offering a third Bush term.” Ironically enough, McCain voted against the Bush energy bill, one of only 26 Senators to do so.
8 ) Nuclear Power
Position #1 (Sep 2007): Obama declares, “I don’t think that we can take nuclear power off the table.”
Position #2 (Dec 2007): Obama declares, “Nuclear energy is not optimal. I am not a nuclear energy proponent.”
9) Health Care Mandates
Position #1 (Feb 2008): Obama fights against Clinton saying there’s “a different way” of achieving universal health care than mandates - “forcing everybody to purchase it.”
Position #2 (June 2008): Obama announces he “is not opposed to the idea” of health care mandates.
10) Telecommunications Immunity
Position #1 (Oct 2008): Obama pledges to filibuster any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.
Position #2 (June 2008): Obama announces that he supports the compromise FISA legislation which includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.
11) Death Penalty For Child Rapist
Position #1 (Sep 1997): On an Independent Voters of Illinois questionnaire, Obama answered “do you support the death penalty?” with a simple, one-word answer: “No.”
Position #2 (June 2008): When asked about the SCOTUS decision about the death penalty for child rapists, Obama replied, “I disagree with the decision. I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances, for the most egregious of crimes.”
12) Meeting Without Preconditions
Position #1 (June 2007): QUESTION: “[W]ould you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?”… OBAMA: “I would.”
Position #2 (June 2008): The Boston Globe reports, “On foreign policy, Obama went from stating that he would meet, without preconditions, with the president of Iran, to saying he would meet ‘with the appropriate Iranian leaders at a time and place of my choosing - if and only if - it can advance the interests of the United States.’”
13) Undivided Jerusalem
Position #1 (June 4, 2008): To the AIPAC, a pro-Israeli lobby, Obama announces his campaigns policy that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”
Position #2 (June 5, 2008): After backlash from Arab groups and supporters, Obama backtracks from that statement on CNN, saying, “it’s going to be up to the parties [Israelis and Palestinians] to negotiate a range of these issues.”
14) Normalized Relations With Cuba
Position #1 (Jan 2004): Obama announces, “I think it’s time for us to end the embargo with Cuba” because it had “utterly failed.”
Position #2 (Aug 2007): To a group of Cuban-Americans in Miami, Obama says, “As president, I’ll maintain the embargo. It’s an important inducement for change.”
15) Gay Marriage
Position #1: Obama says he “opposes same-sex marriage,” but says states should decide for themselves.
Position #2 (July 2008): Obama comes out against the CA ballot measure defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.
16) Abortion
Position #1: Obama has a extreme pro-choice history of “long-stated positions on abortion (and a proposed federal abortion rights law he had co-sponsored).” (ABC News)
Position #2 (July 2008): Obama shifts far to the right and tells Relevant magazine that states should be able to restrict or prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a “health of the mother” clause - which would not include mental distress.
17) Debating McCain
Position #1 (May 2008): Obama says he’ll debate McCain “anywhere, anytime.”
Position #2 (June 2008): Obama rejects town hall debates with McCain.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Obama isn’t the political messaih after all? More like the Two-faced Roman God Janus.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Nice work.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
But it’s going to be hard to defeat two Democratic candidates in a row on the flip-flop argument.
Maybe attack ads could mention it’s on odd coicidence.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
The Romney camp used this against McCain during the primary and it worked. It was one of the few things that worked, but I like the lists.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I don’t think “attack ads” are going to work as effectively coming from the Republican party this year. People already don’t trust the brand, they aren’t going to trust the ads coming from the brand even if they are true. I think they need to refocus and do an almost entirely “positive” campaign with ideas and proposals. I think that would be a lot more effective. However, I don’t think this will happen and will ultimately result in a loss for the GOP this year in the Executive.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
When I talk about attack ads, I’m talking about the TV commercials. I think lists like these are effective, just not in the format I’ve seen the RNC put out this year in TV ads.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Newsweek has now determined now that once Obama has started flipping, that flip-flopping is now good. (see latest issue)
July 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
What kind of commander and chief would Obama be if he could not adjust his positions in light of new or contrary data? It just seems like this guy gets blown around by new or contrary data an awful lot.
What he says at any given moment has a lot to do with who asked the question.
A standard Obama grief-cycle: say something stupid, then spend the next 2 weeks clarifying what you said, only your clarification will amount to either
(a) a complete, point for point retraction
or
(b) a complete reversal
Whether it is (a) or (b) hardly matters. The point is to steadfastly refuse to admit to even the possibility that your position has radically changed in the face of even the weakest of objections. It was all those stupid listeners who got it painfully wrong because they insist on taking everything you say seriously. More fool them.
Were this not the ObaMessiah this would not be called leadership. This would be called a speech disorder. Obama is what psychologists would call a “poor historian.”
July 9th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Yesterday, Obama said: “If you are a family making $250,000 a year or less, we will not raise your taxes — Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax. Not any tax. If you make $250,000 a year or less.”
Perhaps not a full-fledged flip-flop, but at the very least, this qualifies as a “clarification” or a “refinement” of what Obama told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo back on March 27th.
Also, Obama’s throwing of Reverend Wright under the bus should certainly be on this list.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I don’t think advertising this issue is necessary except for maybe parking a few low-end videos on youtube to motivate the base and entertain the choir. Obama has developed this issue all by himself. The man is urgently writing his own counter-narrative and the media is helping him. This is what Romney did too. He would reverse himself constantly and insist that he didn’t, leaving it to his long-suffering surrogates and campaign spokespeople to sort out the aftermath. As the campaign wore on nothing Romney could say or do got taken seriously by anyone.
For some strange reason Obama believes that this is a good model to emulate.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Obama is a startlingly weak candidate. If Barack weren’t running in a toxic year, we’d be looking at a Republican landslide. As it stands we have decent odds to win (~40%).
July 9th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
There is a delicious Rasmussen Reports poll from NJ out.
July 9th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Is this really the best attack on Obama? It’s not that hard to make a list of position changes for any politician… Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that team McCain is FINALLY deciding to scrap it up with the Mighty One.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
dontan: Once again your narrative of Romney is dead to rights.
Obama and Romney are equally arrogant and will hopefully be equally humiliated.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Some of these are absolutely not flip-flops, and can be explained away on a rational basis.
Others are legit, and there are far too many that are legit.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Alex, would care to elaborate? I am interested in your explanations of which can be explained in a rational basis.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
The two positions in #8 are not necessarily contradictory.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
A couple of quibbles.
Flip flop or no, his position on #1 is something I welcome, since cutting and running would be disasterous to our national security. I say he gets a pass on this one.
#6 clearly isn’t a flip flop — it is misdirection. And I think #13 is less a sign of a flip flop than Obama not having a clue what he was talking about.
On the other hand, on #s 2, 3, 5 & 11 calling them flip flops is letting Obama off easy. He was fundamentally dishonest in how he sold each position. For example, on NAFTA he fully intended to “pivot” at the Primary and even sent an emmisary of his campaign to Canada to reassure the PM then lied about the visit. Flip flops are inevitable and part of the “game” if you will (McCain’s got a few himself and it doesn’t bother me much) but that level of dishonesty is truely disturbing.
Oh, and very good find on #7.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:02 am
6 is misleading, but not a flip-flop. 8 is not a flip-flop. 9 needs more elaboration. 15 is not a flip-flop. 16 is not a flip-flop, given that Roe v. Wade left 3rd-trimester abortions to the states. 17 is rational, given that McCain packed his first town hall debate with supporters.
The rest are legitimate.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:40 am
[...] a grain of salt, read the 17 things and then read about the 61 [...]
July 10th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Alex, re #16, Obama refused to vote for the “born alive act”, which prohibited “abortions” committed after delivery (he voted “present” during roll call). Maybe the McCain camp’s flip flop point would be stronger if they highlighted his refusal to support that measure.
July 10th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I wonder who has had more flip-flops in this campaign, Obama or Romney…..?
August 4th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
[...] ideal that Obama has devoted himself to relentlessly? Being elected. How else can you explain the shameless shifts on public financing, Iraq, the D.C. gun ban, NAFTA, the FISA bill, town-hall meetings, or talks [...]
August 5th, 2008 at 11:22 am
[...] course, that only scratches the surface of Obama’s record of flip-flopping this [...]
August 5th, 2008 at 11:22 am
[...] course, that only scratches the surface of Obama’s record of flip-flopping this [...]
August 5th, 2008 at 11:22 am
[...] course, that only scratches the surface of Obama’s record of flip-flopping this [...]