Of course it is important to detail what lies are in the the latest attack from lying slime, BUT

IF the attack is NOT successfully shot down and shot full of holes and decapitated, then the attack might work.

Sadly, detailing the lies isn't usually enough to shoot down & shoot full of holes & decapitate the attack gaining ground ---

for that we need message.

Hello DC Doormat Dems!

Hundreds of Congresscritters!

Thousands of Staffers!

Tens of Millions in Salaries!

Think any of you, this summer, can break away from whining about how mean and ornery the lying slime are AND instead come up with some great coutner message to the attacks?

I'd love to, but

I got a job, and IF I don't do my job,

I'll be living under the bridge in cardboard box

(I'm one of those tens of millions of people without a trust fund ! without affluent relatives !! Maybe you read about them in college? )

so how about you'll FIGHTING for us peeeee-ons instead of whining how a bunch of lying slime are liars!

On NPR this morning it was suggested that Obama's change was the result of advice by John Brennan, and that Obama's seeking to bolster his credentials with the intelligence community.

I always thought HRC's position was better, and I don't think anybody gets us out of Iraq in 16 months or 16 years.  So I never believed Obama when he said out in 16 months.  

So, at this point I don't necessarily care what Obama's "plan to end the war" actually is, or how it's been "refined" in the past 6 months, because I don't think it can be delivered upon in the ways he's represented.

And it hit me: if my buddy, who's practically a walking Democratic Party demographic, can't be sure who Obama is, how can anyone else?

That's why the Obama FF Strategy is truly bizarro. You don't need to scurry off to the right when you've got a disaster of a sitting Republican president with a 30 % approval rating, and when you've gained the large part of your support by marketing yourself as THE NEW ALTERNATIVE.

Faith base initiatives
Abortion stand (mental stress)
Iraq

While Obama's recent statements have exposed him to the "flip flop" attack and have dismayed many Democrats, they have largely followed elite Serious Person opinion and given him some protection from being attacked in the corporate Media as a "liberal". Recalling the infamous Gibson-Stephanopoulos debate, I predict he'll start waffling on tax policy as well.

I still think the most important primary that Obama won was the National Media Primary, having first become the anointed Media anti-Clinton candidate, and then becoming the presumptive Media nominee long before the primaries were over. I persist in thinking that Obama's rightward moves have not been made because they are vote-winning strategies per se, but rather because they are aimed at neutralizing McCain's advantage in the Media General Election. In particular, the Media will find it much easier to report that Obama is maintaining his lead in the polls because of his "moderation" rather than reporting that he is leading in the polls because the voters are angry and want to throw out the bums in Washington who have led the country to disaster. The Media are far too invested in those self-same disastrous policies, and Obama's "accommodation" of those policies makes him Responsible if not downright Serious and thus at least a worthy adversary to War Hero Fighter Jock Maverick John McCain.

Lots of Democrats run to the center in the general election.  But I cannot remember a candidate who has embarked on such a hasty, clumsy shift on so many issues almost immediately after securing the nomination.  It's way too obvious.  When you move to the center, you're hoping to present yourself as authentic, not looking to hang out a neon sign that says "HEY, I AM MOVING TO THE CENTER HERE."

This could have been to hype his wknd appearance as scenery that chews itself on Law & Order: Criminally Over-Acted. (Sen was speechifying).

More likely the photo-op was a predictable scrap of Dem theater to deflect the ire of the rabble-ATMs during the Dems holiday cookouts done old-fashioned Dem-style -- off @sses fully ablaze from their pants on fire -- before returning rested and refreshed for yet another mass cave.

(I'm discounting the possibility that Sen Schumer appeared in a rare moment of strong, unwavering principled leadership from the Jellycrats because I'm too unfamiliar to ascribe that one occurrence and certainly not a whole category.)

In any case, now that we have Obama, the Best Speechmaker Evah, in the Senate and running for Prez, he should be leading the charge to stamp out this bill. He should be leading the charge to shut down this disgrace.

Obama-the-Product, now king of the internets and master of online marketing, wants/ needs to be in more homes than Kleenex or Bounty or TV Guide or Land O'Lakes butter, so he's selling himself to whomever he can, however he can - even if that means that he's reversing course or side-stepping a position or abandoning one altogether.  

He would not say he is flip-flopping - he would probably say that he is delving into the needs of all the people, finding what resonates with them and identifying elements of his platform that can appeal to them.  He's a product, one that a lot of people are wary of being able to perform as advertised.

A flip-flop is when one compeletley switches sides of an issue, as John McCain has done repeatedly.

For example - Obama is still strongly supports pro-choice, but added that he does not believe "mental distress" should be a reason for terminating a late stage pregnancy.  If he had announced that he has decided to abandon pro-choice in favor of anti-abortion, that would be a flip-flop.

If you look at Pres. Clinton's 1996 run against Dole you will see that Pres. Clinton did this as well with NAFTA, Welfare Reform, DOMA, etc...It's called Nuance, capitualation, flip-flopping, etc...until it just becomes politics.

Frustrating, yes. Surprising, no. If Obama becomes President then I would suggest he would have vetoed the FISA bill. It's about getting elected first and governing second.

Obama is smart because it shows that he can change his mind, easily, without any qualms and without fear of upsetting voters -- and this is a good thing to have in an executive.  It shows that he is powerful and in charge.

"Refining" is not really flip flopping.  It's more like "sifting" or "shifting."  It's taking a larger idea and narrowing it down to smaller, more defined ideas.  

Obama is not a "flip flopper."  He's a "sorter" and a "redefiner."

Personally, I think the more likely explanation is that he just doesn't  care period about abortion rights and isn't fully pro-choice, so he's happy to pander to the right on the issue because he's not invested in the issue he is undermining.

two explanations (both completely false in their analysis):

 1) the Obama campaign geniuses have determined that Obama needs to "tack to the center" (a.k.a. sound like a republican) in order to win in November. Flip Flopping is necessary for Obama to espouse center-right positions.

 2) The Obama campaign geniuses have also determined that Obama needs publicly stick-it-in-the-eye of progressives and Obama's grassroots base for Obama to win in November and prove to the great American middle Obama's independence - more republican meme swallowing.

The media will fawn.  The republican brand is that bad.

This nullifies discussion about obama doing things or not doing things to get elected.

And refocusses discussion on obama doing things or not doing things because he believes its the right thing to do.

Sorry.  

He probably doesn't even need the money at this point.

Why?  Because he thinks the possibility of intercepting a terrorist plot on the tcom backbone outweighs the erosion if liberties.

So now Obama's pandering is the fault of Clinton and her supporters?

Or put another way, since he can't win with Democrats, he has to win with Republicans?

If Obama were not pandering to the right, he might have over many Clinton supporters for demonstrating, if not courage, at least good sense, good political instincts, and by far the most important: the desire to actually stand for Democratic values.