Obama denies shifting to reach political center

I do agree with him when he says that people assume that just because he doesn't agree with the left on everything, he is catering to the center. People so desperately want to put politicians in a box, and often they allow themselves to be placed in the box. I see this as him refusing to go into a box. This will be interesting to watch.

At first I thought he was wacky leftie. Glad to see he's not really a leftie. "Refining" his positions as needed, based on the audience in front of him. A fine man of principle!! lol

I would challenge anyone who says Obama has flip-flopped on his stance on Iraq to find a complete quote of him expressing his views on Iraq that are opposite of what he has said recently... If you are as smart as some of you try to come off in regards to knowing who Obama "really is" this won't be a hard challenge. Good Luck

If you really want a challenge try to find some things that McCain has flip-flopped on also, or just ignore that fact and continue to harp on Obama

If elected, we'll all find out upon his inauguration, if not sooner, whether he's as his voting record suggests or he's more of a centrist as his current oratory purports.

It would be dumb for him to try and win the election as a far left leaning candidate. This man may be a lot of things, but dumb is not one of them. He doesn't need to worry about losing his support from the left; come election day they'll vote solidly for him rather than risk a McCain victory.

I am now so disappointed with Obama that for the first time in my life I will not be voting for President.

Obama's reversal of his promise to hold the people who illegally spied on Americans and to not give retroactive immunity to the telecoms is my primary reason.

I can't believe how a man who ran on a platform of "Change" for the people could deceive and betray us so blatantly. I guess it's just politics as usual once again.

Obama is a pawn of the "democratic" party, the party that selects rather than elects its candidate, and not an agent of change. He is a staunch supporter of the right to volitionally dismember a living baby prior to his/her birth in the name of "choice." In fact, if the baby survives this gruesome process, Obama's voting record demonstrates that he would choose to let that child die. He has reliably voted present, thus avoiding a controversial stance on many issues. He thinks he can reason with terrorists, and has stated he is willing to do so. Obama paraphrased my least favorite communist, Karl Marx, an elitist who let his family go hungry rather than do work he considered "beneath him" when he said "they cling to their guns and their religion", it was Marx who called religion "the opiate of the masses." I am hopeful that Americans are smarter and better educated than to vote for such a transparent opportunist, however the media has him on a pedestal and worships him daily. His wife is only able to be proud of America now, when her husband is a candidate for president. Her husband wants to continue to sacrifice America to foreign interests, instead of supporting a self-sufficient America. And if you are middle class and don't think his tax hikes will affect you, think again. Small businesses that create jobs and entreprenuers that create jobs will be taxed out of business. And this without even a cursory review of the terrific waste incurred in our government processes. What a ridiculous state of affairs our country is in.

Carla:

Obama: "So let me be clear. There is no military solution in Iraq. There never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year, but now."

This was from Sept. '07 in Iowa.

Deidra,
In the Iowa '08 speech you referred to, before he said what you quoted, Sen. Obama also said, "First, we need to immediately begin the responsible removal of our troops from Iraq's civil war." I will forgo the requirement that you prove you understand the meaning of "responsible' as used in this sentence.
The very next paragraph that follows what you wrote says:
We should enter into talks with the Iraqi government to discuss the process of our drawdown. We must get out strategically and carefully, removing troops from secure areas first, and keeping troops in more volatile areas until later. But our drawdown should proceed at a steady pace of one or two brigades each month. If we start now, all of our combat brigades should be out of Iraq by the end of next year.
Please note the words: DISCUSS STRATEGICALLY CAREFULLY
Perhaps Carla was not clear enough. I am sure she thought enough of you to think you would read for correct information and not just to prove a point. So let me add, please supply facts that are in context to the topic.
I am not saying Sen. Obama can not be wrong, but I am tired of fact-less accusations offered here as truth.

For all those PUMA bloggers. You all need to go and buy a copy of the English dictionary. Maybe after reading it carefully (if you can get off your hate drug long enough to do so), you come to understand that refining something, is not the same as changing it (but Oh I forgot, you already know this fact, and your lying hate filled anti Obama posts, are just pitiful and mischeivous attempts to miscontrue the obvious meaning of Obama's words, in an ultimately futile attempt to turn people against him). And as for your telling us ARB for the umpteenth time that you will never vote for Obama, who cares for your pitiful single vote. Go vote for McFollowBush, and prove yourself yet again, to be an empty headed nincompoop.

And for your information, Barack Obama has been saying all along that he would pull out 1-2 brigades per month, subject to conditions on the ground, as well as the advice of troop commanders. It seems that most of you Obama haters, have been so busy criticizing everything the man has to say that you never actually listened (or read) any of his numerous speeches on Iraq. People like me, who actually bother to listen to the direct words of political candidates, and who also do not wait to be spoonfed by media analysis (which as you can see from this article, are often either misguided, biased, or both), have always known that Barack Obama's position was staunchly anti-iraq War, but still very nuanced and reasonable. Ergo his often repeated mantra, "...we will be as careful getting out, as we were careless going in."

Try not to make it obvious to the whole world that you are either complete morons, or else slanderous partisan snakes, by doing your research, before posting your blogs.

People,People,People read the responses from Jen !!
She is one of those "pull the string" talking dolls my daughters used to play with.
Hi, I'm Jen. I work for BHO and I've never had an orginal thought in my entire life, these are my talking points, talking points, talking points. Uh oh the string is all tangled up.
You can put lipstick on a pig, but guess what ? It's still a pig.

Here's a fact about Obama. He took his kids to a church that preaches hate toward rich white people and the US government. He sat in that church and listen to that hate for 20 years. I can not vote for a man who would listen to that garbage, when church is a place of love and hope. Why should I believe anything he says? When you listen to hate, you hate. God help us in the next 4 years.
From a Florida Dem, who's vote only counted for 1/2.

Carla:

Obama: "So let me be clear. There is no military solution in Iraq. There never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year, but now."

This was from Sept. '07 in Iowa.

Carla:

The important part of the quote above is where BO states "...immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year, but now."

The important phrase in the above quote is "...immediately begin..."

I don't how well you understand the English language, but i think it shoud be clear to even a fifth grader that BO is herein asking the Bush administration to "immediately begin" (emphasis mine) withdrawing US forces from Iraq. He nowhere stated that the troop withdrawal could 9or should), be completed immediately. He only demands that this withdrawal start now! Which is a perfectly reasonble demand to make. And therefore when he is inaugurated our president on January 20, 2009, he will "immediately begin" withdrawing US forces from Iraq. But this process of withdrawal will last 16 months (subject to conditions on the ground, as well as the need to protect our troops, and US assets in Iraq).

I cannot see where the man has changed his position. This is the very same thing he has been saying all along. So is it merely that you hate him so much that you will post any lie, in order to keep him out of the White House, or are you truly so ignorant that you actually never heard him say that "...we will be as careful in getting out, as we were careless going in?"

See Pete-369254

I heard enough on TV to make up my mine. Why would a preacher says the things that came out of Obama's preacher's mouth? Then in the same church a priest said more bad things and the people were cheering and clapping. If that wasn't hate, then what is?

We are not dumb, even though Senator Obama seems to think we are. Words do not erase actions. I have been an enthusiastic supporter of Obama. I have donated money. Lately I have been upset as he has veered away from his original promises. The final straw was his faith-based initiative and his romancing of the evangelicals, acts hateful to his core group. (It was a stupid move on his part, in any case. He will never get them.) I am not a yellow-dog democrat, but a thinking person. Although I will not vote for McCain in November, I will either stay at home, or vote for a third-party candidate. Obama has been using us and I don't like tbeing used.

I am completely tired of all these people, who keep on boring us with their fervent promises not to vote for Obama. The last time I checked, the good ol' US of A, was and still is a democracy, and as such its people are free to exercise their civic right, to vote for or against whomsoever they please.

You don't want to vote for Obama, and I cannot wait to vote for this "shining statesman... (Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia)" So shut the **** up, and go vote as you please in November, and we all God willing, live to see the result of our collective votes. There is no need to continually pester and bore us, with your spiteful and inane anti Obama bigoted "... I will never vote for that man..." refrain.

No president of the US, has ever secured the vote of every single American citizen, and even if Mr. McFoolishImperialist were to be elected president come November, he would only get elected over my very well informed vote (which is far more than I can say for the votes of any of you bigoted and quite disgraceful Obama haters). So you just go ahead and vote against obama as you already always planned to do (before he made any "...refine my position..." statement), who cares? Who needs your misinformed (or should I say, very likely racist) votes anyway?

Those of us not voting for Obama would suggest that you are the one who is, a best, uninformed. To charge that anyone not voting for Obama is racist is just what I would expect from an Obama supporter. When you can't stand to debate the facts, throw mud.

No flip flopping, no refining...just a bunch of lies from someone that will say and do anything to win.
Obama can not be trusted....
He did not hear WRight...Yeah Wright! Listen to his book with his own words...he wants to bake and eat his cake...an probably will for we are fools to believe anything this man says...Twenty years in a Radical Racist ant-American Church and with a radical racist anti-American Preacher, uncle like, Friend
mentor and did not hear anything...I guess he forgot when he was writing his book..... His was soooo inspired by his good friend Wright a radical racist anti-american and we want to make this man our president..yes let beat this dead horse for Anti-Americanism is very important specially if it pertains to our next president....so lets not be blind sighted by a man that will do or say anything to win....even wear a flag pin and denounce his preacher, church all for the sake of self serving political reasons....
Will he brings our troops home... you are all dreaming......and if he does...who will he leave vulnerable while he is doing this...all our boys, girls, dads, mom, friends like little lambs waiting to be targeted!
this man will only bring us despair!

Niliad:
All you just posted above, sums up to jibberish. Are you sure that you are qualified to vote? Because if I were to assess you based on what I have just read, I would have no other choice but to conclude you're a complete dolt, totally lacking in judgment, without moral compass, and also particularly bereft of any modicum of shame.
I absolutely pity you! For you are a prime example of the failures of the current American General Education system. You are in dire need of a proper civics class.

People still don't get it?

Obama is a politician just like all the rest. No better and no worse. They all say what they need to say to get their party's nomination. Then, they all say what they need to say to win the general election.

All that change, hope, and unity talk is to appeal to your innnermost wishes. Just as all of the security talk from McCain is to appeal to your wishes for safety.

Wake up and smell the coffee. Both are politicians. Plain and simple. Neither is a saint and neither is any different from any other politician.

Jen: Thank you for encouraging me to seek out the entirety of Obama's July '07 Clinton, IA speech. Unlike many people I see comment on various sites, I am willing and able to accept information from those whose political beliefs do not necessarily match my own. Perhaps you could help me with this snippet from an April '08 debate:

Charles Gibson: "And, Senator Obama, your campaign manager, David Plouffe, said, 'When he is' -- this is talking about you - 'When he is elected president, we will be out of Iraq in 16 months at the most. There should be no confusion about that.' So you'd give the same rock-hard pledge, that no matter what the military commanders said, you would give the order to bring them home?"

Obama: "Because the commander-in-chief sets the mission, Charlie. That's not the role of the generals. ... Now, I will always listen to our commanders on the ground with respect to tactics, once I've given them a new mission, that we are going to proceed deliberately, in an orderly fashion, out of Iraq, and we are going to have our combat troops out. We will not have permanent bases there. Once I have provided that mission, if they come to me and want to adjust tactics, then I will certainly take their recommendations into consideration. But, ultimately, the buck stops with me as the commander-in-chief."

Is he saying here that he will or will not listen to commanders in Iraq? It appears to me, from this statement, that he has said that he will listen to the commanders but only once the troops are ordered to begin being removed from Iraq, which is not in line with what he is saying now. Do you have a different take?

Dope Smoker vs. Vietnam Vet.

Novice congressman vs. seasoned congressman.

Bail out vs. Fight.

Emotion vs. Logic.

Words vs. Action.

Black vs. White

Gamble vs. Trusted

Gamble vs. Trusted

Gamble vs. Trusted

Gamble vs. Trusted

Walmart vs. Your business

Hope vs. Promise

Hope vs. Experience

Hope= wishful thinking

Hope vs. a plan

Obama vs. Mc Cain

wishful thinking vs. reality

Of course Obama has to "adjust" his message to pander to the center. He's the most liberal man in all of congress. Obama should dominate left of center, but will have to fight (pander) for the center.

McCain, on the other hand has long resided in the center, and is very comfortable there. He will need to be careful not to allow Obama to woo the center out from under him, which is a real concern given Obama's oratory ability. McCain also still has the problem of trying to win over the conservatives in his party. He is making progress on that, but has not yet accomplished it.

This election will by and large be decided by what happens with the center, and far right voters. As long as it is a two horse race, it will be interesting to watch. But just as in 1992, a relatively strong third candidate could determine the outcome in November.

Understand that all comments are not absolute. People can say that they are against something and then with a little more research clarify their position.
Obama just don't flip flop on me!

We cannot lose our young people in a war that three goof balls started just need to plan a very good exit strategy.