Obama's Foreign Policy Flip Flop
Democratic Candidate for President Changes Mind
Obama recently toured Europe and the Middle East to boost his foreign policy credentials. Then his poll numbers began to slide and signs pointed to independents moving into McCain's camp. Then came Obama's flip flop on Iraq, probably the biggest reversal in his policy ideas and the most hypocritical stance of the entire campaign.
Obama Changes His Iraq Policy
Barack Obama ran as the anti-war candidate and drew much of his support from the crowd that wanted out of Iraq immediately. In late 2007 Obama called for the removal of all American troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008. An immediate, unconditional withdrawal. In a damning quote Obama states: "'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 - now." This stance won him many accolades among the far left and helped him defeat rival Hillary Clinton.
Fast forward to July 2008: Obama now "refined" his stance to call for residual forces being left in Iraq to maintain stability. Now Obama says he won't leave Iraq until the generals give him the okay. Yes, those same generals who supported that awful surge that "wasn't working." Obama still opposes the surge, denying that it has succeeded, despite the massive drop in violence in Iraq. Meanwhile he calls for a troop surge in Afghanistan.
The New Democrat Strategy
It is becoming clear that Barack Obama is struggling with a coherent Iraq policy. He has staked his run on the failure of the Iraq War, but now that things are turning around, the Democratic party is finding that they, not the Republicans, need to alter their views in order to get elected. Nancy Pelosi told Democrats that if they need to promote drilling for oil (despite being against it), then do so as long as it helps you win the election. You read correctly. The Democratic policy is now basically: "Lie to your constituency if it will help you win."
Likewise, Obama has altered his own views on off-shore drilling. Once something he vigorously opposed, now Obama feels that drilling might be the answer. It is normal for a politician to "alter" his views when running for President, but they usually try not to sacrifice the very issues that their base supports. Time and time again it is the Democrats that need to moderate their stances in order to be more appealing to the general public. What will Obama "refine" next?
Published by Victor Mobley
Victor Mobley is a student at Central Michigan University. He enjoys researching and writing history and even a little fiction here and there. Primary interests are politics, history and Detroit Red Wings... View profile
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5 Comments
Post a CommentIf I hear the term flip-flopping one more time I'm going to flip and then flop somoene to the floor.
There is nothing wrong with changing your opinion. Nothing at all. It shows that you have the intelligence to admit wrongdoing, and to EVOLVE.
Notice who doesn't do this: George Bush. When the historians 200 years down the road reveal him for the disaster he was and is, he'll be at the pearly gates (or not) laughing his head of saying "who needs historians anyways?"
As for drilling. Anyone with an IQ over 70 should realize that this is only a shorterm answer. Why? Because oil is a finite resource. So even if it does make things cheaper for the NOW what about the future? I say let's get the whole peak oil bullshit over with and do NOW what will need to be done in the future: diversify.
Oh, and I'd like to see a direct quote of Obama endorsing offshore drilling. I always love to hear conservatives say "so and so says this" without ever backing it up with one quote.
I could
If I hear the term flip-flopping one more time I'm going to flip and then flop somoene to the floor.
There is nothing wrong with changing your opinion. Nothing at all. It shows that you have the intelligence to admit wrongdoing, and to EVOLVE.
Notice who doesn't do this: George Bush. When the historians 200 years down the road reveal him for the disaster he was and is, he'll be at the pearly gates (or not) laughing his head of saying "who needs historians anyways?"
As for drilling. Anyone with an IQ over 70 should realize that this is only a shorterm answer. Why? Because oil is a finite resource. So even if it does make things cheaper for the NOW what about the future? I say let's get the whole peak oil bullshit over with and do NOW what will need to be done in the future: diversify.
Oh, and I'd like to see a direct quote of Obama endorsing offshore drilling. I always love to hear conservatives say "so and so says this" without ever backing it up with one quote.
I could
Obama IS NOT a straight shooter (that was a great album by Bad Company though). He's a prevaricating, juxtaposing professional politician. He has 300 foreign policy advisers alone, and hundreds of other advisers to tell him what he thinks and how he should think it! He is a leftist, and a damned far left one at that. Remember how in January, before the Obama miracle, all we heard was how Bush was too partisan and we needed a centrist. Hillary was far more the centrist than is Obama, yet when the bloom fell off the rose those same peeps screaming for an anti-Bush centrist started screaming "Hillary is too much the centrist!" And from these same idiots we hear "McCain is a Bush third term," yet for 20 years McCain has been a media darling BECAUSE he would not tow the Conservative line, so this allegation is a lie and a damned foolish talking point that history 100% demonstrates to be false. And leave it to their Messiah to say it himself, over and over and over and over and over . . .
Less war is good; MORE drilling is extremely good; and wealth redistribution is COMMUNISM, and it'll be a cold day in Hell before me and the tens of millions of nation loving Americans stand by and let that happen. Poor Grampa - you're getting older and still your desires go unmet. Life's tough, huh Gramps?
Good politics are all about negotiation, compromise, and changing to meet the need. If we start condemning politicians for doing the dance it takes to get elected, we'd have no "elected" politicians. The issues are really more war or less war, more drilling or less drilling, and the continued redistribution of wealth up or a shift downward. I'll go with the one who represents less, less, and downward.