John K, Wilson, author of Barack Obama, This Improbable Quest, takes a shot at rebutting Dennis Byrne, who accused O. of flip-flopping in the matter of campaign financing. Before, he was for it (taking fed money and calling off fund-raising), later he was against it (broken system, can’t condone it, can’t employ it, like a broken PC: can’t use it, you know, have to get a Mac).
Not so, says Wilson, who blogs at www.obamapolitics.com — “Barack Obama is quickly becoming America’s most popular politician” — and has criticized the U. of Colorado committee that punished prof Ward Churchill as “opening the door to a vast new right-wing witch hunt on college campuses that conservatives could easily exploit across the country.”
“Obama never made an unconditional promise to take public funding,” says Wilson in a letter to Chi Trib editor that identifies him as author of his book, which he would dearly like us all to know about — I didn’t — which is unusual in letter-writer (“Voice of the People”) identifications. Wouldn’t we all like our books given such display? The letters editor would be swamped.
To Wilson: What was the condition O. set? And what’s this “agreement” vs. “promise”? Publicly made, of course, to gain advantage in campaign sweepstakes.
“I defy Byrne to offer a single example,” says this doughty campaigner-book author.
Byrne accuses Obama’s campaign of “shading the truth” because “it implies that all the money comes from small contributions of $5, $10 or $20.”
But this was the entire import of O’s agreement-not-a-promise, was it not? That he as reformer would take the supposed reformer’s path? Wilson missed that?
Again the bluster, reminiscent of “I would challenge” to Chicago newsies to “dispute that basic fact” — that he’s not a typical Chicago politician:
Unless Byrne can come up with a single example in which Obama’s campaign claimed that all of its money comes from $20 donations or less, he’s “shading the truth” and owes Obama–and his readers–an apology.
En garde, Byrne! We bloggers at obamapolitics.com want to joust! Make our day!
Big O. and the gang should call this guy off, especially in view of its claim that this was “an extremely difficult decision.”
Of course. Breaking (up) an agreement is always hard to do.
Blithe Spirit 
In a polyglat society of 300 million, NO politican can run or rule by never changing his mind. I guess it’s all i how he does it
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Changing all of his major positions in order to win, this isn’t tailoring his message for clarity or changing in view of changing circumstances or new knowledge. It’s changing his stripes to confuse the electorate about what you really believe in and intend to do if elected. Another word for it is hypocrisy or more bluntly, lying.
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Wilson, like other Obama apologists, is willing to forgive and forget Obama’s many flip-flops, for he knows that Obama, if elected, will tack quickly and effortlessly back to the far left. Not to do otherwise would be just as scary, for this would mean that Obama has no set core of values and beliefs, which many do believe. To be realistic, would Pelosi and Reid allow Obama to be any thing other than who he really is if elected? Obama is a liberal Democrat and a socialist at heart. He is not going to change his stripes. I fear many Americans are going to be duped.
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