"Can't I Just Finish My Waffle?"

By all means, Senator, proceed

Editor's Note: Thomas's commentary is in blue and Marcie's is in purple.

We're not calling them flip-flops. We're calling them waffles. Senator Obama has done his fair share of waffling in this election. Prior to the primaries, and on the primary trail, He stuck to his guns. He maintained ties to the extreme liberal fringe -- the anti-war crowd, the "Bush lied" crowd, and all those opposed to any sort of conservative policies -- in an effort to take them away from senator Hillary Clinton. The media also jumped on his bandwagon with his statements and stances that showed him to be solidly liberal. But now that he has secured that wing of the party, he is now trying to appeal to moderate Democrats, evangelicals, and Republicans. To a point the fever swamp has grumbled about it, but they understand that this is how a campaign is run by a Democrat. But it doesn't change the fact that he is waffling all over the place. Here are his top five waffles since he "secured" the nomination. (Point-of-order: He has NOT secured the nomination yet because the Democrat process is not like the Republican's. He still has to win the delegate votes at the Democrat National Convention in August.)

#5 FISA

Back in February Senator Obama stood in lockstep with Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Christopher Dodd, and Senator Patrick Leahy in opposing the proposed reforms passed by the House of Representatives. He voiced open support for a filibuster in the Senate over the reform package. But that was when he was still battling Senator Hillary Clinton. In fact the Potomac Primaries kept him from the initial vote that the Senate held on proposed reforms. But in a brazen reversal, when the final vote was held he not only voted for cloture, but also voted in favor of the reforms. (The sound that was heard after the final vote was tallied was the thousands of heads popping at DailyKos and the Huffington Post.) Senator Clinton took a leap to the left by voting against it, but the move barely elicited a whimper from the fringe of the Democrat base. While the mainstream media ignored the shift, the New Media (blogs and talk radio) took notice of it, and trumpeted it. He waffled, and not because it was prudent, but because he saw a chance to appeal to national security conservatives and moderates.

#4 Public Financing

Early in the campaign, when Senator John McCain challenged Senator Obama to join him in accepting public financing, Senator Obama agreed to it. Public financing would have limited both candidates to $84 million in their war chest. But in June Senator Obama decided that his fund raising ability trumped his pledge to accept public financing. Senator McCain slammed him over the decision stating that he was the first candidate since Watergate to forgo the public financing system. Senator Obama slyly claims that his donations are "public" as it comes from the public, for the most part. What he does not openly acknowledge is that his campaign is not garnering the small donors as he would like many to believe, but in fact it is a large amount of big money donors. The Washington Post reported that "Seventy-nine "bundlers," five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed. Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million" While he does have his small money donors, it is clear who is cutting the checks to propel him forward. It isn't the mom-and-pop voters that believe in the politics of "hope" and "change," and cut him a $100 check. It's the movers and shakers in Hollywood, amongst trial lawyers, and other large special interest groups.

#3 DC v. Heller

Back in April the Politico released a questionnaire filled out by Senator Obama in his 1996 state senate bid. On that questionnaire he stated he supported a ban on the "manufacture, sale, and possession of handguns." On November 20, 2007, when asked by the Chicago Tribune about the case to be heard before the Supreme Court, the paper was told that "Obama believes the DC handgun law is constitutional." When the decision was handed down, Senator Obama hailed it as the right decision. Additionally, he jumped on the point that Justice Antonin Scalia made that common sense gun laws can be enacted, but his support of the ruling is a clear reversal from his original statements reflecting his support of the firearms ban in Washington, DC. What is worse is when his campaign fielded questions about the reversal -- one questioner noted that in the primaries he supported the ban -- Obama spokesman Bill Burton explained his statement then was "inartful." Inartful or not, this is a clear waffle on a position he has had for years.

#2 Iran

On 18 May, Senator Obama told 75,000 people in Oregon that Iran (along with Cuba and Venezuela) didn't "pose a serious threat" to the United States. He also stated in the 2007 CNN/YouTube debates that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. On 23 July he "amended" his statements by telling Israelis that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a serious threat to not only the United States, but to Israel, as well. He has also switched on the precondition notion by stating that there would be preparations now. It is clear to us that he seems to not have a clue about Iran, or what might be needed to curtail their ambitions. It's bad enough he still won't back away from the promise to meet with Ahmadinejad, but the constant waffling on the Islamic theocracy isn't endearing him to voters who are squeamish about what we will and won't do to prevent the Iranians from getting nukes. Senator Obama claims he can persuade the Iranians to give up their nuclear ambitions with "stick and carrot" diplomacy. The problem with that is that it's already been tried, and the Iranians continue to tell the world to pound sand.

#1 The German leg of his tour abroad

On July 22 in Amman, Jordan, Senator Obama's campaign aides assured reporters that his much-ballyhooed speech in Germany would not be a campaign speech. It would not be a campaign rally. In an amusing exchange, the aide in question stated that when the president gives a speech abroad, it is not a political speech, or a political rally. A reporter quickly reminded that aide that Senator Obama is not the president. The aide reassured everyone that this would not be a campaign rally. On the 23rd, Patrick Ruffini noticed that on the bilingual side of his website there is the graphic of the flyer being distributed in Germany. It is announcing the rally, in German, and they are organizing people to attend the rally as they would do so here in America. This is a clear attempt to influence the vote here by telling Americans that the world loves this man, and we would be fools to ignore them. While our critics may say this is not necessarily a waffle (as it did not come from his mouth, but rather from an aide) it does not change the fact that his aides speak on his behalf. And it does not change the fact that this is not simply a speech, but a rally reminiscent of the ones he has here in America.

So what do his waffles tell us? It tells us that Senator Obama is not a new politician who promises "hope" and "change" in the politics in Washington, DC. He is not a new and improved politician. He's the same old sort of politician. He will do and say what he needs to to win. Winning, to him, is everything. He is a neophyte politician that has spent the bulk of his career climbing the political ladder without taking the time to stop on the occasional rung to learn something. Everything about his political career has been about reaching the next rung, and it doesn't matter how he does it. His US Senate record shows he has spent 143 days on the job before he decided to run for the presidency. That's not a lot of experience, and it's plainly clear in his constant waffling. We were worried about the Clintons, but these waffles make the Clintons look scrupulous. If, by some miracle, he does win the presidency, he will have to determine what he does believe in. Is he still in the thick of the fever swamp, or is he closer to the centrist he portrays himself to be now? Nobody knows, and based on his constant waffling, we're not sure he knows either.

He is a scholar of history, especially American history, and the United States Constitution. She has finished her undergrad studies, graduating with a BA in English and history and will move onto law school this fall where she will specialize in Constitutional Law. Together, Thomas and Marcie form the vanguard of conservative opinion at Hamilton, Madison, and Jay -- a blogging site devoted to advancing the conservative cause by challenging the liberal lies and deceit spread by the media, and espoused by the Left in general. Both are expert debaters, and have beaten many liberals into submission with their collective wit, and unmatched knowledge. The pair is married, and resides in Arizona

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