The Occasional Observer

So, Obama represents a new breed of politics, one that transcends all the old ways and will rise above to take the US to great places, right? He will reach across the aisle and do things differently than his predecessors, right? Well, let's see.

1. Possible change: use public campaign financing. Proposed and supported by McCain; previously proposed by Obama but no longer supported. So not only no change, but backtracking. Sounds like old politics to me.

2. Possible change: 10 town-hall style debates, not moderated by the press, that would be primarily Q&A type sessions with voters. Definite change from the standard debates, proposed by McCain. Obama's response: "You know what we've said is we are happy to do more than the three typical presidential debates in the fall..." Note the use of the word "typical"; i.e., not change.

3. Wright / Flegler / Rezko / Ayers / Jim Johnson. Change? Not the type I'd like to see.

4. How about conservative/liberal rankings? In 2007 Obama was ranked the #1 most liberal senator with a 95.5% score. #1. That is more liberal than Teddy K, Kerry, Schumer, Reid, Biden, Hillary, etc. How about McCain? Couldn't be ranked in '07 (missed too many votes), but in '06 he was ranked 46th most conservative senator with a 57% composite score. While I'd much prefer to see McCain with a much higher conservative ranking, it certainly sounds like only one of these candidates is truly bipartisan and "change" politics. Not quite sure how an automatic liberal vote represents change.

Sadly, it may take his election combined with a Dem Congress for people to really understand who Obama really is. He's nothing more than your standard-issue big government liberal.