With both the DNC and RNC just over a month away, the battle lines are being drawn. However, it looks like it will be the independents who will decide who will take oath in the white house next year. Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, has interestingly begun taking centrist or even hawkish positions in recent weeks on foreign policy, trade, the death penalty and other hot-button issues as he introduces himself to independent and swing voters, many of whom know little about him or have heard criticisms that he is too liberal or that he is a muslim. While Obama is making a play for centrist voters, McCain's strategy seems more geared to catering to the conservative base, as he has steadily moved to the right on a range of issues.
But as both Omaba and McCan try to appeal to the idependents, both are reversing or flip-flopping (Since that seems to be the popular term) on almost all of their policies on which they won the primaries. However, it is Obama who is beating McCain to the punch as he is moving so quickly to the center that he has irked some of his supporters, well actually a lot of his supporters.
In the primaries, Obama supported pulling out of Iraq, called the DC gun ban constitutional, backed the subjection of telecom companies to extensive lawsuits if they cooperated on terror surveillance program, opposed welfare reform, criticized free trade deals and pledged to renegotiate NAFTA and fiercely opposed it and was strongly against the death penalty.
However, he has now almost taken a different path and deviated on all his own stances. He told Fortune magazine he believes in free trade and does not want to overturn or pull out of NAFTA. On Iraq, Obama said that his upcoming trip there might lead him to refine his promise to quickly remove U.S. troops from the war and he will now listen to the general (we all know how that goes). Obama also extended his support for the government's eavesdropping program as the spy bill passed the senate today. After the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia's gun ban, he said he favors both an individual's right to own a gun and government's right to regulate ownership and declared himself a "supporter of the Second Amendment". Obama also became the first major- party candidate to reject public financing for the general election after earlier promises to accept it. He not only embraced but also promised to expand Bush's program to give more anti-poverty grants to religious groups, a split with Democratic orthodoxy. The most surprising stand was when he objected to the Supreme Court's decision outlawing the death penalty for child rapists, drawing attention to his support for the death penalty if used only for the "most egregious" crimes.
With today's gallop poll showing Obama leading with just 48% - 43%, I think he may be risking his reputation for truthfulness. If he loses his reputation, he certainly does not have time to gain the voters trust with just 3 months before they go to poll.
But as both Omaba and McCan try to appeal to the idependents, both are reversing or flip-flopping (Since that seems to be the popular term) on almost all of their policies on which they won the primaries. However, it is Obama who is beating McCain to the punch as he is moving so quickly to the center that he has irked some of his supporters, well actually a lot of his supporters.
In the primaries, Obama supported pulling out of Iraq, called the DC gun ban constitutional, backed the subjection of telecom companies to extensive lawsuits if they cooperated on terror surveillance program, opposed welfare reform, criticized free trade deals and pledged to renegotiate NAFTA and fiercely opposed it and was strongly against the death penalty.
However, he has now almost taken a different path and deviated on all his own stances. He told Fortune magazine he believes in free trade and does not want to overturn or pull out of NAFTA. On Iraq, Obama said that his upcoming trip there might lead him to refine his promise to quickly remove U.S. troops from the war and he will now listen to the general (we all know how that goes). Obama also extended his support for the government's eavesdropping program as the spy bill passed the senate today. After the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia's gun ban, he said he favors both an individual's right to own a gun and government's right to regulate ownership and declared himself a "supporter of the Second Amendment". Obama also became the first major- party candidate to reject public financing for the general election after earlier promises to accept it. He not only embraced but also promised to expand Bush's program to give more anti-poverty grants to religious groups, a split with Democratic orthodoxy. The most surprising stand was when he objected to the Supreme Court's decision outlawing the death penalty for child rapists, drawing attention to his support for the death penalty if used only for the "most egregious" crimes.
With today's gallop poll showing Obama leading with just 48% - 43%, I think he may be risking his reputation for truthfulness. If he loses his reputation, he certainly does not have time to gain the voters trust with just 3 months before they go to poll.
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