Obama’s “evolving” war position may cost him his base

By J.R. Hoeft

It seems the more one “hopes” for “change”, the more things stay the same.

True to form, as previous Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama has so many positions on the war, it might be difficult to keep up with them.

However, Obama’s evolving position might be costing him. The Washington Times reports:

As Mr. Obama repositions himself for the general election after exclusively targeting the Democratic base of committed liberals, it leaves some voters on the left feeling he is abandoning them on their top issue - Iraq - and has independents questioning his veracity.

“If a perception takes hold that a candidate is flip-flopping on core convictions, that will hurt,” pollster Scott Rasmussen said, noting that nearly a third of voters are “up for grabs” this fall.

A Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll shows 19 percent of voters classified as “other” - neither Republican nor Democrat - think that on the Iraq war, Mr. Obama is “abandoning voters that got him nominated.” (Eleven percent of Democrats agree.) About 20 percent of independents think Mr. Obama is “not really going to change his opinion” on a U.S. withdrawal within 16 months of taking office, a pledge he has made repeatedly.

A Newsweek poll found similar dissatisfaction among voters over Mr. Obama’s shifts in policy positions. In the survey, 53 percent of voters said he recalibrated his stances on key issues such as the war and President Bush’s new electronic surveillance law in order to gain political advantage.