I'm not sure how much I buy the premise that Obama is running to the right of McCain, but there's certainly enough flip-flops as evidence.
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?
There's his embrace of FISA. And now, his trip to Iraq will surely result in a new flip-flop for the Democrat candidate. Easy money says he will come back and, after having run on pulling out of Iraq because we're losing, determine that we aren't losing and that leaving Iraq hastily will only cause more problems.
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.
On domestic policy, Obama was against NAFTA and now he's for it (another Bush position). Judicially, he agreed with the minority opinion in the child rape case the Supreme Court announced a couple of weeks ago, and he agreed with the majority that the Second Amendment is an individual right. These are extraordinary flips, given Obama's stated positions not so long ago. Yet both positions are conservative ones.
Worse for moonbats like Amanda Marcotte, Obama has embraced President Bush's faith-based initiatives. And welfare reform. What's next?
I don't particularly believe these flip-flops. I think they are an attempt to moderate his liberal past, his ties to extremists, and appeal to a Bush-weary electorate. It remains to be seen if he can fool enough of the people enough of the time.
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