He has made the New York Times very angry by all his shifts to the center and they let him know in their editorial yesterday titled "New and Not Improved." The NYT catalogues Obama's various shifts from turning down public financing of the general election to accepting the Telecom immunity provision of the FISA bill which he'd originally opposed to his advocacy of faith-based programs and support of the death penalty for child rapists and the Supreme Court's decision in the guns case. Of course, these are all shifts that conservatives applaud, even while mocking the blatant cynicism of such moves, but the NYT is not pleased, not pleased at all. As the editorial concludes,
We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games.
There are still vital differences between Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain on issues like the war in Iraq, taxes, health care and Supreme Court nominations. We don’t want any “redefining” on these big questions. This country needs change it can believe in.
If these shifts have angered the NYT editorial board, what are they going to say as Obama tries to shift on withdrawal from Iraq? What they're getting is change that is politically expedient and they're not going to like it. But they'll go ahead and endorse him anyway, perhaps because they don't believe that these shifts represent the true Barack Obama anymore than conservatives believe that Obama has suddenly become more conservative.
He has made the New York Times very angry by all his shifts to the center and they let him know in their editorial yesterday titled "New and Not Improved." The NYT catalogues Obama's various shifts from turning down public financing of the general election to accepting the Telecom immunity provision of the FISA bill which he'd originally opposed to his advocacy of faith-based programs and support of the death penalty for child rapists and the Supreme Court's decision in the guns case. Of course, these are all shifts that conservatives applaud, even while mocking the blatant cynicism of such moves, but the NYT is not pleased, not pleased at all. As the editorial concludes,
We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games.
There are still vital differences between Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain on issues like the war in Iraq, taxes, health care and Supreme Court nominations. We don’t want any “redefining” on these big questions. This country needs change it can believe in.
If these shifts have angered the NYT editorial board, what are they going to say as Obama tries to shift on withdrawal from Iraq? What they're getting is change that is politically expedient and they're not going to like it. But they'll go ahead and endorse him anyway, perhaps because they don't believe that these shifts represent the true Barack Obama anymore than conservatives believe that Obama has suddenly become more conservative.
