Politico: Obama's Liberal Views As State Senator Could Haunt Him

wyldwolf

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Tue Dec-11-07 03:21 PM
Original message

Politico: Obama's Liberal Views As State Senator Could Haunt Him

When Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was seeking state office a dozen years ago, he took unabashedly liberal positions: flatly opposed to capital punishment, in support of a federal single-payer health plan, against any restrictions on abortion, and in support of state laws to ban the manufacture, sale and even possession of handguns.

Filling out a 12-page questionnaire from an Illinois voter group as he sought a state Senate seat in 1996, Obama answered �yes� or �no� � without using the available space to calibrate his views � on some of the most emotional and politically potent issues that a public official can confront.

�Do you support � capital punishment?� one question asked.

�No,� the 1996 Obama campaign typed, without explaining his answer in the space provided.

�Do you support state legislation to � ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?� asked one of the three dozen questions.

�Yes,� was Obama�s entire answer.

A week after Politico provided the questionnaire to the Obama campaign for comment, an aide called Monday night to say that Obama had said he did not fill out the form, and provided a contact for his campaign manager at the time, who said she filled it out. It includes first-person comments such as: �I have not previously been a candidate.�

Obama, who makes an issue of his opponents� consistency in the presidential race, has tempered many of those 1996 views during his quick rise to the pinnacle of American politics. He now takes less dogmatic positions many of those hot-button issues � in the view of some Democrats, he abandoned the stands as he rose through the ranks.

For instance, Obama says he supports the death penalty in limited circumstances, such as an especially heinous crime. The campaign says Obama has consistently supported the death penalty �in principle� and opposed it �in practice.�

On handguns, his campaign said he has consistently been for �common-sense limits, but not banning� throughout his 11-year political career.

Regardless, the blunt statements of his earlier views, preserved on a questionnaire he filled out for an Illinois voter group that later endorsed him, would allow a Republican opponent to paint him as being way to the left of the nation�s electorate on questions that have historically been potent wedge issues.

Obama has never faced a serious Republican electoral challenge. And as the reality that he could be the Democratic nominee sinks in, party analysts are assessing the risks of a career that � unlike that of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the nomination � has not been spent carefully anticipating and avoiding GOP attacks.

So electability questions that once were directed at Clinton may now be asked about Obama.

Put more bluntly, Republicans think his high-minded approach to issues could make him a sitting duck as he tries to attract the vast middle that determines American elections.

more...

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=C906328B-3048-5C12-007DE179B9A5D1D5