BUTTE, Mont. - Is Barack Obama close to being shadowed by giant flip-flops and, worse, having the image stick with people?
Four years ago, Republicans branded as a "flip-flop" even the slightest rhetorical or policy change by John Kerry and sent huge replicas of the sandals to bob around the Democrat's events. Fair or not, Mr. Kerry never recovered and lost to President Bush.
It's now the Republican weapon of choice against Mr. Obama.
The Illinois senator has excited many with the notion that he is a new, transcendent type of politician. But he is giving the GOP effort ammunition and endangering his "Change We Can Believe In" motto with several shifts to the center.
Mr. Obama has been highlighting positions anathema to the left on several issues, though some have long been part of his policy.
Mr. Obama said Thursday that his upcoming trip to Iraq might lead him to refine his promise to quickly remove U.S. troops from the war.
He now supports broader authority for the government's eavesdropping program and legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in it, supporting the bill after some protections were added.
cremation Jewelry ToolsThe handgun-control proponent reacted to the Supreme Court overturning the District of Columbia's gun ban by saying he favors both an individual's right to own a gun and government's right to regulate ownership.
He not only embraced but also promised to expand Mr. Bush's program to give more anti-poverty grants to religious groups, a split with Democratic orthodoxy. The GOP's efforts to pin the flip-flopper label on Mr. Obama might be working. Despite disarray in John McCain's camp and just 17 percent of the public saying the nation is moving in the right direction, recent polls show Mr. Obama unable to build a solid lead over his GOP rival.
For Mr. Obama, there is no more important issue than Iraq.
Opposition to the war drove his entrance into the race and helped him defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination. It made him a darling of the anti-war activists who are now prominent and influential in the Democratic Party.
Mr. Obama's problem on Iraq isn't that he is changing his position drastically, because he isn't. He has always said his promise to end the war would require consultations with military commanders and, possibly, flexibility.
His problem is that his change in Jaeger LeCoultre Watches emphasis to flexibility from a hard-nosed end-the-war stance - including his recent position that withdrawing combat troops could take 16 months - will be heard loud and clear by an anti-war camp that might have ignored it before.
After his remark Thursday at a news conference about refining his Iraq policy exploded onto the political scene, he called a do-over four hours later to "try this again." He said the refining wouldn't be related to his promise to remove combat forces within 16 months of taking office, but to the number of troops needed to train Iraqis and fight al-Qaida. But then he acknowledged that the 16- month timeline could indeed slip if removing troops risked their safety or Iraqi stability. Still, he said, "I will bring this war to a close. ... I am not searching for maneuvering room with respect to that position."