Obama responds to Criticism

I think Obama and I are in a telepathic communication as he just responded to the criticism I laid out (following the lead of many other Obama supporters) at his feet. In a town-hall meeting in suburban Atlanta, Obama responded to criticism of his so-called "centrist moves." I copy the New York Times blog in its entirety, as it addresses the same issues I mentioned in my previous post, and Obama's response to these arguments.

Obama Addresses Critics on ‘Centrist’ Moves

By Michael Powell

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Barack Obama had heard quite enough of the complaints that he is pirouetting, leaping, lurching even, toward the political center.

He is at heart, he told a crowd in suburban Atlanta, a pretty progressive guy who just happens to pack along a complicated world view.

“Look, let me talk about the broader issue, this whole notion that I am shifting to the center,” he said. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me.”

To this, he adds, parenthetically: “And I must say some of this is my friends on the left” and those in the media.

“I am someone who is no doubt progressive,” he said, adding that he believes in universal health care and that government has a strong to play in overseeing financial institutions and cracking down on abuses in bankruptcies and the like.

Senator Obama has faced a wave of complaints from his followers in recent weeks that he is tacking hard toward the political center, and moving away from his liberal base. His critics note that he recently applauded a Supreme Court ruling knocking down a Washington, D.C. ban on handguns, supported a proposed wiretap law that he once promised to oppose and spoke in favor of the death penalty for child rapists. He also has endorsed a role for religious organizations in government that critics, not least many who support him, fear would blur the line between church and state.

So when a Republican who said he planned to vote for Mr. Obama asked about the candidate about his views on Iraq, he took the occasion to expound more broadly on his political philosophy.

“I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive and put me squarely in the Democratic camp,” he said. But, he noted, he does not believe that the active hand of government is a replacement, say, for parental responsibility in education.

“I believe in personal responsibility, I also believe in faith,” he said. “That’s not something new; I’ve been talking about that for years. So the notion that this is me trying to look” – he waves his hands around his head – “centrist is not true.”

Mr. Obama, in fact, has written and spoken in favor of a role for religious institutions in the provision of social services, and in his book “The Audacity of Hope” he appeared to endorse the death penalty for child rapists.

As for gun control, Obama said he long has believed that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to bear arms. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t think we need decent controls” on guns, he said. “Those two positions are not contradictory.”

Mr. Obama has been far less clear about his views on the Washington, D.C. gun ban. As recently as four months ago, he seemed to speak in favor of the law; two weeks ago, however, he seemed to applaud Supreme Court ruling without precisely saying so.

He also spoke to the lurking danger for any candidate who stands accused of abandoning or trimming core beliefs: Voters grow uneasy about the candidate’s identity. This problem greatly afflicted Republican Mitt Romney in the Republican primary earlier this year, when that candidate appeared to re-brand himself and his beliefs with each passing week.

“One of the things you find as you go through this campaign, everyone becomes so cynical about politics,” Mr. Obama said. There is an “assumption that your must be doing everything for political reasons.”

Voters should understand, he said, that they rarely will find themselves in 100 percent agreement with him. “But don’t assume that’s because I’m just doing it for “political reasons, he said.

“That just means we disagree,” he said.

At which point he returned to Iraq, an issue where he has wavered very little from the stance he took many months ago. He favors a phased-in 16-month withdrawal. The McCain campaign has labored hard to suggest that he is inconsistent on this issue.

“We have to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in,” Obama said. “You’ve got to be sure our troops are safe, you have to be sure the country doesn’t collapse.”

“When I hear John McCain saying we can’t surrender, we can’t wave the white flag,” Obama said, “no one is talking about surrender.”

But, he added to loud applause, “don’t be confused: I will bring the Iraq war to a close when I am president of the United States of America.”