Pretzel Logic

"Barack Obama has been spinning like a top, and watching his positions on, well, just about everything is like watching table-tennis matches on TiVo triple fast forward. FISA, public financing, and NAFTA have all been reversed in the last couple of weeks, and Obama's not through yet . . .

"Suddenly, with the general election looming, Obama discovers that his campaign's statement was inartful. This seems rather puzzling, because before he ran for public office, Barack Obama was supposed to be a Constitutional law expert. One might expect the 'inartful' excuse on wetlands reclamation or some other esoteric matter of public policy, but the Constitution is what he supposedly studied at Columbia and Harvard."

Red State: "May I suggest that Senator Obama start putting a 'Freshest if used by' date on all his speeches? It'd be a help, really."

Flopping Aces says the timing is a bit coincidental:

"Every flippin day we get more evidence that Obama is the worst flip-flopper to have come along in sometime . . .

"Puhlease. 'Inartful?' Either you believe the ban was constitutional or not. Simple question. His spokesperson said he did believe it was constitutional and he never corrected this statement until the day of the decision."

Not seeing much on the liberal blogs. HuffPost had a big banner headline but nothing about Obama's shift. Here's a post from Newshoggers:

"In today's political climate, flip-flops and smarmy attempts to spin now-abandoned positions of principle as 'inartful' are more harmful than just going against the national grain might be. I understand that Obama wants to move toward the center now that the primary is over and the general must be fought, but inartfully doing so won't help. He needs to rediscover his spine."

The court rulings makes this Time essay by Jay Newton-Small particularly timely:

"To some observers, Obama's transformation from upstart candidate to presumptive nominee has made him begin to look dangerously like the typical Washington politicians he so often rails against. Worried about his patriotism? He now wears a flag pin daily. Worried about his church? He left it. Think he's inexperienced? Don't fret; he's got lots of renowned advisers. Too liberal? Well, just look at his recent policy statements on defending Israel and protecting warrantless wiretapping.

"And for a man who last week flip-flopped on his pledge to stay within the public financing system, Obama's planned meeting with Hillary Clinton's fat-cat donors seems to be his way of saying, 'I may not like your game, but I'll take your money.'

"Certainly this kind of seasonal shifting of messages isn't new for a presidential campaign, in which candidates typically move to the fringes to appeal to their party's all-important base in primaries and the center to appeal to crucial moderate and independent swing voters in the general election . . .