It wasn’t long ago that they hung a pair flip flops around the neck of our nominee and used them to help a draft-dodging party boy beat out a decorated Vietnam War veteran for the presidency.
They were pretty effective at calling John Kerry a flip-flopper and – sadly – that name stuck. Remember this ad?
Today’s latest has to do with Obama’s earlier promise to agree to public financing (see page 5), and his apparent waffling on that promise now. Make the jump – there’s more...
In an editorial in the Washington Post today (Mr. Obama’s Waffle), they pointed to a quote in the above-linked questionnaire on this issue...
AS RECENTLY as November, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was unequivocal about whether he would agree to take public financing for the general election if his Republican opponent pledged to do the same. "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?" the Midwest Democracy Network asked in a questionnaire. Mr. Obama's answer was clear. "Yes," he wrote. "If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."
But Mr. Obama's campaign, which has been raking in money at an astonishing clip of more than $30 million a month, is starting to hedge. Speaking to the Associated Press, Mr. Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton, downgraded the Obama plan to "something that we pursued with the FEC and it was an option that we wanted on the table and is on the table." Asked about the campaign's earlier position, Mr. Burton said, "No, there is no pledge."
If BO were so committed to reform I would think he’d jump at the chance to pin this thing down right here – and right now given that the Republican front-runner has said he’d take public financing too
Mark Halperin has a statement from Howard Wolfson (Hillary’s Communications Director) here
"Senator Obama says words matter. They do.
"Last year, Senator Obama pledged to take public financing in the general election if the Republican nominee agreed to do so as well.
"Unfortunately, he broke that pledge this week. It now appears that Senator Obama made a promise to the American people that he is not keeping. That’s wrong.
"That’s not change you change can believe in."
I’m not saying one way or another whether our nominee should take public financing but the thing is, BO has already said he’d take it if the Republican agreed to it – and from what I hear the goopers are jumping at the chance to set limits on our ability to raise and spend money in the General election. They know they’ll be outraised and outspent by our nominee – no matter who that turns out to be.
He made that promise and Hillary didn’t. She was smart enough to understand our advantage in fundraising this year and didn’t make any such pledge. She – as usual – was thinking about the long haul and wasn’t about to box herself in on something where we’d clearly have an advantage.
You guys, Obama’s painted himself into a corner on this issue. He either sticks to what he said he’d do as recently as November and limit what he can spend against the republicans – or he can go back on his promise and give the republicans even more ammunition re the flip-flopper line of attack.
The issue is not public financing but more one of Obama's history of making promises he doesn't keep.
If Obama is running by asking us to trust his oratory then that oratory needs to be examined. He has consistently forgotten his promises when the time came go on the record with his vote. He pledged to end the Patriot act but voted to extend it. He said years ago that he was in favor of single payer health care but not now. He made his grand speech in 2002 against war, but when he ran for the Senate he took that speech off his web-site and has consistently voted to fund that war he opposed since reaching the Senate. He says what the moment dictates in order to get votes, and then he reneges on his promises.
...and don't forget - Obama went from wanting to ban the manufacture, sale and ownership of handguns in 1996 to limiting purchases to "only" one a month. He has lots of "evolving" positions on things that the republicans can make him look like Mitt Romney II on.
As Wolfson said, that’s not the kind of change we need right now.