In quantum physics you have lots of particles with no determined properties. An object such as an electron can be in two places at one time, and doesn't have a left or a right spin in a magnetic field until someone measures it, or interviews it on Meet The Press. Well, now we have the Obamaton. Today this recently discovered particle abruptly changed its spin, and is now in favor of off-shore oil drilling. From McClatchy:
Barack Obama Friday dropped his opposition to offshore oil drilling, saying he could go along with the idea if it was part of a broader energy package...
The change is dramatic because Obama often pointed to his opposition to drilling as a key difference between himself and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
"I will keep the moratorium in place and prevent oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts," Obama said in Florida in June.
Of course McCain has also flipped on offshore drilling. There is no reason to suppose that either candidate is more honest or genuine than the other on this or a lot of other issues. But there is this difference: McCain's opposition to drilling off shore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was an eccentricity for a Republican. In dropping his opposition to the degree that he has, he becomes a little less eccentric and comes to the support of his party in Congress. This makes it reasonably easy to get an idea of who and what McCain is. He is a conservative Republican with a pronounced independent streak, who is not above coming back to the fold when political expediency demands it. Maybe you like that and maybe you don't. I am comfortable with it. But it gives you a good idea of what kind of President he would be. On some issues he will be stubbornly McCain. On others, a solid Republican.
Obama's flip flops, by contrast, almost always cut against his party's long held principles. Public financing of campaigns was long a central idea in Democratic campaign finance reform. Obama didn't just abandon the principle, he destroyed it. Opposition to new drilling off shore is a principle Congressional Democrats have been defending for decades, which is why we don't have the oil now. They are currently using every device in the book to prevent new drilling, in the face of strong public support for the Republican position. By flipping on this issue, Obama has cut and run on his Congressional allies and compromised a long standing project of liberal Democrats. Now it would be one thing if Obama were going against his party on personal principle. But that isn't what this is. Obama has no personal commitment to oil drilling. He flipped just to close off one avenue of attack. He calculates that he has the Left in his pocket, so he can afford to offend the Sierra Club. He just has to make it harder to McCain to form an independent-conservative coalition against him, and so he is adopting traditional conservative positions as fast as he can.
The only trouble is, this makes it almost impossible to guess what kind of President he will be. Will he transform into a social democrat and try to bring Canadian health care to America, as Bill Clinton did in his first term? Don't hold your breath, Cory. Can we expect him to be a traditional Democrat in any sense? Not based on this campaign. But neither do we have any sense of Obama apart from the day to day demands of the campaign. It's no wonder that his campaign slogan, "Change we can believe in," was so vacuous. There's no there there.
We won't know what kind of particle the Obamaton is until or unless we measure it in the magnetic fields of the Presidency. That will be exciting.
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