Being All Things to All People

When all the public wants is “change” and something they can believe in, it becomes amazingly easy to offer goodies to every audience. It simply takes a bit of rhetorical skill, an application of nuanced phrasing and a deeply seated ambition to be President of the United States. Principle is not part of the recipe. When you know that you are smarter than they are you are unfettered in the ability to shape the daily message to whatever is necessary at the moment. You hold it self-evident that your charm will carry the day.

That’s why Sen. Obama is having such an easy time following the established political dictum that one runs to the center after gaining the nomination from the party extremists. But there are signs that the slick façade may have some cracks that a sharp instrument might pry into. It remains only to be seen if the discoveries then disillusion the voters.

One certainly can’t deny that the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal is one such sharp instrument. Here’s a look that they’ve taken at the latest Obama triangulations and it isn’t very complimentary. Taking one’s own pithy political pronouncements and turning them back on you is a job that the WSJ tackles quite effectively here:

Flexibility the Key to Indecision

Possibly one of the most damning of statistics we’re starting to uncover about the Messiah of the Left is the recent count of how many days he had served in the US Senate, the major league of American politics, before declaring his candidacy for the most difficult, dangerous and sensitive job in the world. The number is pitifully small, just 143. I'm hard pressed to declare that "a lot of experience".

Start to take note of the number of times that we get retrospectives of Sen. Obama’s voting position on critical Senate votes. If it shocks you that he is more notable for voting “present” or abstaining than establishing a position that can later be pointed to as evidence of his ideology than welcome to the growing crowd. Don’t fall for the argument that his abstentions were on votes that weren’t going to be close without him. The core of the issue is that his non-commitment gives him total flexibility to now be essentially untouchable on major issues.

Except, of course, for the possible accusations of cowardice in the performance of his elected duties.