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Obama Aims To Be Man In The Middle

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By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 8, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - In new television ads running in Tampa and nationwide, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama talks of learning "values straight from the Kansas heartland" from his mother and grandparents, and boasts that he "passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by 80 percent."

In the past few weeks, he has given a speech on patriotism, promised to expand federal aid to religious charities and said he would consider corporate tax cuts.

Is this the same Barack Obama who once said his overseas upbringing would help him conduct foreign policy? And "It's time we stopped giving tax breaks to CEOs and corporations who don't need them, and start giving relief to working families"?

Yes - but it's an Obama whose tough primary fight is over, and who now faces a general election.

Obama, many experts say, is making a time-honored journey for politicians - from the outskirts of the political spectrum, where he won the primary, to the center, where he needs to be in November.

"He's definitely changing his political identity a little bit," said political scientist and presidential politics specialist Bruce Buchanan of the University of Texas.

"It's the traditional move by any candidate who succeeds in getting the nomination from an ideological base to position himself for the general electorate."

Obama's campaign says there's been no change.

"His message today is the same as it has been through the campaign ... the need to put aside labels including parties and bring Americans on all sides together," said spokesman Nick Shapiro.

It's true the differences are mostly subtle, changes in tone rather than reversals of positions on issues.

Last week, however, charges of a shift in his positions arose again when he seemed to alter his stance on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Obama has long said U.S. forces should come out of the country in 16 months.

Last week, however, he said he may "refine" that after consultations with military leaders in a coming trip to the region.

Obama said that was not a change in his position, and that he has always said his "guiding approach continues to be that we've got to make sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable."

It's true he has long said in speeches that the United States should "be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in."

He makes no mention of any qualifications or refinements in the section on Iraq on his campaign's Web site.

Gun Control, Death Penalty

On two issues, gun control and the death penalty, Obama has been accused of direct reversals of his positions.

The accusations came after Obama said he agreed with the recent Supreme Court decision that threw out a handgun ban in the District of Columbia, and disagreed with a decision to prohibit the death penalty for child rape.

Critics charge he formerly favored a handgun ban and opposed the death penalty.

Those accusations, however, rest on a 1996 Illinois state Senate campaign issue questionnaire, which Obama disclaims. His campaign said a staffer erroneously filled out the questionnaire, and that it misrepresented his views.

Shift On NAFTA

On at least one issue, however, there has been a clear shift in his position: the North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminates most trade restrictions among the United States, Canada and Mexico.

During his nomination battle against New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the two argued bitterly over who was the more sincere and ardent NAFTA opponent. Obama said NAFTA had cost jobs in the United States, and vowed to renegotiate it, using a threat to withdraw to force changes in the treaty.

He recently acknowledged to a Fortune Magazine interviewer that NAFTA has been beneficial "in the aggregate," and that his primary stance was "rhetoric that gets overheated and amplified."

In his move to the middle, Obama has an important advantage over Arizona Sen. John McCain: an enthusiastic support base likely to accept his change in tone, Buchanan said.

"Given the options for the base, I believe he'll be able to get away with it," Buchanan said. "He's already recaptured most of the Hillary Clinton constituency. It's not likely he'll lose any but the most idealistic and politically innocent."

Buchanan said McCain has the opposite problem: The party's strongly ideological base has never been enthusiastic about him, because of differences on issues ranging from stem-cell research and immigration to taxes.

"McCain started in the center. His problem is galvanizing the base and holding it, rather than feeling free to move away from it." Buchanan said. "He doesn't have that kind of enthusiasm" that Obama has from the Democratic base.

Still, there have been a few signs of rebellion against the "new" Obama from some parts of the Democratic base.

One erupted after Obama's recent vote for changes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which specifies procedures for federal intelligence gathering that may include U.S. citizens.

In February, Obama voted against a version of the bill that gave immunity to telecommunications companies that went along with government requests to intercept U.S. communications. Some contended the requests were illegal, and that the companies should be legally liable for obeying them.

Then in June, Obama voted for a bill containing the same immunity provision. He said the new bill included protections for citizens that weren't in the previous version.

Some Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, voted as he did, providing him political cover for the move.

At least one influential Obama supporter, Markos Moulitsas of the liberal Daily Kos political blog, announced after the decision: "I pulled back my credit card last night, making a last minute decision to hold back on a $2,300 contribution to Obama."

Subtle Differences

Most differences between the general election Obama and the primary Obama are subtle:

•His June 30 speech in Missouri on patriotism didn't differ in substance from anything he has said before, but it brought a different tone to the campaign from his widely noted speech on racism in March. It also included a swipe at the liberal political action committee MoveOn.org for its advertisement critical of Gen. David Petraeus.

•Obama has never said outright that he opposed President Bush's "Faith-Based Initiative," which he now proposes to expand but hasn't previously advocated the issue.

•Obama recently reversed his promise to use public financing in his general election campaign.

Republicans criticized the move as hypocritical, but supporters see it as a strategy to take advantage of his unprecedented fundraising capability.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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