Obama Spinning His Wheels

Barack Obama seems to be all over the place these days, and doing it not all that gracefully. While McCain has altered positions on issues whose circumstances have changed (many call this a healthy flexibility) like off-shore drilling, Obama has made major position changes on issues for either no apparent reason or to correct foolish statements betraying his own glaring inexperience, ie., Iran is a small country and therefore no threat vs. Iran is a grave threat. He has been doing this for over a month now since becoming the Democrat nominee aparent, but have the potential voters noticed?

There are a couple of schools of thought on this. Since Obama is still holding a modest lead in polls over McCain, though at times recently they have been literally tied, at first glance it appears voters still favor him over the Republican. But there are two articles that require attention. One is from Dick Morris which appears in Real Clear Politics, in which he reminds us of Obama's more notable flip-flops:

[• After vowing to eschew private fundraising and take public financing, he has now refused public money.

• Once he threatened to filibuster a bill to protect telephone companies from liability for their cooperation with national security wiretaps; now he has voted for the legislation. (My bold)

• Turning his back on a lifetime of support for gun control, he now recognizes a Second Amendment right to bear arms in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

• Formerly, he told the Israeli lobby that he favored an undivided Jerusalem. Now he says he didn't mean it.

• From a 100 percent pro-choice position, he now has migrated to expressing doubts about allowing partial-birth abortions.

• For the first time, he now speaks highly of using church-based institutions to deliver public services to the poor.

• Having based his entire campaign on withdrawal from Iraq, he now pledges to consult with the military first.

• During the primary, he backed merit pay for teachers -- but before the union a few weeks ago, he opposed it.

• After specifically saying in the primaries that he disagreed with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) proposal to impose Social Security taxes on income over $200,000 and wanted to tax all income, he has now adopted the Clinton position.]

Morris reasons that liberals who feel disallusioned with Obama's tactics may cross over to McCain. My own view is that buyer's remorse could rear its ugly head sooner at the Democratic convention. And why not?

The other article of note can be found in of all places, The Huffington Post (or Puff Ho for you Pam fans--that still makes me laugh!) written by Thomas Edsall, in which he states that with all the problems we face today with the economy, the Democrat nominee should be running away with the lead. But he isn't. Instead we have two lackluster candidates, both of whom have failed to take advantage of the blunders of the other. Pundits from both sides are critical of both candidates and reason that what they do in the fall will determine the winner in November.

John McCain seems all too happy with being the underdog at this point, as he has repeatedly stated. At first I considered this a rationalization for his lagging in the polls. Now I believe it is some sort of strategy of his. After recovering in the primary race in an astounding turn-around, maybe we shouldn't second-guess him. But it sure seems like he should be doing more to electrify his base, which hasn't been all that excited thus far, or has grudgingly embraced him at best.