Obama: Flimflam Man?

Debra Burlingame

Flashback 2004: Newly elected Sen. Barack Obama, explaining why he won't run for president in 2008.

"I am a believer in knowing what you're doing when you apply for a job. Uh, and I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the senate. Now, there's some people who might be comfortable doing that, uh, but I'm not one of those people." (See it here.)

Obama has missed 248 votes (44.8%) in the current Congress, from January 2007 through June 2008. So, the question is, between starting his first job working in federal government on January 3, 2005, and essentially abandoning his duties as senator in January 2007 to "apply for a job" as President of the United States, where's the evidence that he "knows what he's doing?"

On the energy crisis:
No to drilling, no to nuclear power, no to clean coal: He supports taking "windfall profits" from oil companies and giving $1,000 bucks to everyone. Yaaaay!!!!! Says inflating your tires will have greater effect than off-shore drilling. Wants to harness the wind and the sun and have everyone ride bikes. Guess commercial aviation is just, well, screwed.

On Iraq:
Said sending more troops for the surge would fail, and in fact, would cause MORE violence. Now says success of surge was do to "Sunni Awakening" which "no one could have anticipated." Troops just got lucky.

On Islamic terrorism:
He says it's caused by poverty, hopelessness and despair, not fundamental Islamist ideology.

On Iran:
Says it's a small country that poses no serious threat. Would meet with Mahmud Amadinejad without preconditions.

On Pakistan:
If Pervez Mushariff won't aggressively hunt down al Qaeda, says he'll "bomb Pakistan."

On capital gains tax:
Admits that doubling the tax from 15% to 28% will reduce tax revenue due to reduced investment and economic growth, i.e. will be bad for the economy, but justifies it on the basis of "fairness" - this is straight income redistribution.

On healthcare:
Free for all - including illegal immigrants. Yaaaaaay!!! Will pay for it by raising taxes on incomes of $250,000 or more. Yaaaay!!! Screw them!!! Yaaaay!!!

On our obligation to the world:
He says U.S. has a moral obligation to educate the world's children and lift them out of poverty.

When confronted with questions about his rookie status and questionable judgment, Obama's pat response: you're just afraid of me because I "look different."

Is this the post-racial presidency? Do we want to spend the next four to eight years being accused of racism any time we question President Obama, his policies, his cabinet appointments, his choice of advisors?

Are Obama's comments about knowing what you're doing when you apply for a job "just words?"