I've asked both here and at Common Sense Political Thought what the next Obama flip-flop would be. After all, he flip-flopped on his loyalty to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his opposition to FISA, his endorsement of campaign financing, and his opposition to gun ownership, among others.
Over at CSPT, I just added a comment to my flip-flop post (with a nice illustration added by Dana!), stating that the latest flip-flop is a double flip with a twist to the Left.
After previously saying he opposed gay marriage and that he respected the rights of states to set conditions for marriage, Obama has now said that he opposes California’s initiative to ban gay marriage — and that he would use federal law to end such efforts(.)
As Ed Morrissey points out, this sets up a disturbing trend with Obama, and makes one wonder how he can switch positions so quickly with so little thought. The case can be made that Obama doesn't know anything about the issues (which, Morrissey says, should disqualify him for president) or that the debate has changed his positions on these matters (in which case, he's probably not fit to be president anyway), or that he's just lying (in which case, he's not fit to be president anyway).
But I spoke too soon. Farther down on Memeorandum comes Obama's flip-flop on welfare reform.
ABC News' Teddy Davis and Gregory Wallace Report: Barack Obama aligned himself with welfare reform on Monday, launching a television ad which touts the way the overhaul "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction.
"I am not a defender of the status quo with respect to welfare," Obama said on the floor of the Illinois state Senate on May 31, 1997. "Having said that, I probably would not have supported the federal legislation, because I think it had some problems."
As I've noted before, Obama's shift to the center (a grab for votes) has meant abandoning his base on the Left. Whatever flip-flops McCain might have engaged in, they have been playing to his base.
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