This article won't matter to the new personality cult and its loudest
devotees here, but then, nothing matters to a fundamentalist who
believes in the coming of a new messiah, anyway.
To those who are not Obama-zombies, this should, however, make a lot
of sense.
Mehul Kamdar
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121495450490321133.html?
mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Bush's Third Term
July 2, 2008; Page A12
We're beginning to understand why Barack Obama keeps protesting so
vigorously against the prospect of "George Bush's third term." Maybe
he's worried that someone will notice that he's the candidate who's
running for it.
Most Presidential candidates adapt their message after they win their
party nomination, but Mr. Obama isn't merely "running to the center."
He's fleeing from many of his primary positions so markedly and so
rapidly that he's embracing a sizable chunk of President Bush's
policy. Who would have thought that a Democrat would rehabilitate the
much-maligned Bush agenda?
Take the surveillance of foreign terrorists. Last October, while
running with the Democratic pack, the Illinois Senator vowed
to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive
immunity for telecommunications companies" that assisted in such
eavesdropping after 9/11. As recently as February, still running as
the liberal favorite against Hillary Clinton, he was one of 29
Democrats who voted against allowing a bipartisan Senate Intelligence
Committee reform of surveillance rules even to come to the floor.
Two weeks ago, however, the House passed a bill that is essentially
the same as that Senate version, and Mr. Obama now says he supports
it. Apparently legal immunity for the telcos is vital for U.S.
national security, just as Mr. Bush has claimed. Apparently, too, the
legislation isn't an attempt by Dick Cheney to gut the Constitution.
Perhaps it is dawning on Mr. Obama that, if he does become President,
he'll be responsible for preventing any new terrorist attack. So now
he's happy to throw the New York Times under the bus.
Next up for Mr. Obama's political blessing will be Mr. Bush's Iraq
policy. Only weeks ago, the Democrat was calling for an immediate and
rapid U.S. withdrawal. When General David Petraeus first testified
about the surge in September 2007, Mr. Obama was dismissive and
skeptical. But with the surge having worked wonders in Iraq, this
week Mr. Obama went out of his way to defend General Petraeus against
MoveOn.org's attacks in 2007 that he was "General Betray Us." Perhaps
he had a late epiphany.
Look for Mr. Obama to use his forthcoming visit to Iraq as an excuse
to drop those withdrawal plans faster than he can say Jeremiah
Wright "was not the person that I met 20 years ago." The Senator will
learn – as John McCain has been saying – that withdrawal would
squander the gains from the surge, set back Iraqi political progress,
and weaken America's strategic position against Iran. Our guess is
that he'll spin this switcheroo as some kind of conditional
commitment, saying he'll stay in Iraq as long as Iraqis are making
progress on political reconciliation, and so on. As things improve in
Iraq, this would be Mr. Bush's policy too.
Mr. Obama has also made ostentatious leaps toward Mr. Bush on
domestic issues. While he once bid for labor support by pledging a
unilateral rewrite of Nafta, the Democrat now says he favors free
trade as long as it works for "everybody." His economic aide, Austan
Goolsbee, has been liberated from the five-month purdah he endured
for telling Canadians that Mr. Obama's protectionism was merely
campaign rhetoric. Now that Mr. Obama is in a general election, he
can't scare the business community too much.
Back in the day, the first-term Senator also voted against the
Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. But last
week he agreed with their majority opinion in the Heller gun rights
case, and with their dissent against the liberal majority's ruling to
ban the death penalty for rape. Mr. Obama seems to appreciate that
getting pegged as a cultural lefty is deadly for national Democrats –
at least until November.
This week the great Democratic hope even endorsed spending more money
on faith-based charities. Apparently, this core plank of Mr.
Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is not the assault on church-
state separation that the ACLU and liberals have long claimed. And
yesterday, Mr. Obama's campaign unveiled an ad asserting his support
for welfare reform that "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Never mind
that Mr. Obama has declared multiple times that he opposed the
landmark 1996 welfare reform.
* * *
All of which prompts a couple of thoughts. The first is that Mr.
Obama doesn't seem to think American political sentiment has moved as
far left as most of the media claim. Another is that the next
President, whether Democrat or Republican, is going to embrace much
of Mr. Bush's foreign and antiterror policy whether he admits it or
not. Think Eisenhower endorsing Truman's Cold War architecture.
Most important is the matter of Mr. Obama's political character – and
how honest he is being about what he truly believes. His voting
record in the Senate and in Illinois, as well as his primary
positions, would make him the most liberal Presidential candidate
since George McGovern in 1972. But he clearly doesn't want voters to
believe that in November. He's still the Obama Americans don't know.
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