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Editor’s Note: This week’s discussion topic: Do you think Barack Obama’s shift to more conservative positions on key issues in his political comments will cost him support, or is it a wise political move?

Obama’s position changes will help him — if people don’t come to realize that he is “pulling the wool” over their eyes again with his oratorical abilities. He is simply moving from the left toward the center long enough to get elected. Then he will go back to the far left where the money and his base has always been.

Obama has three real deficiencies — trustworthiness, judgment and experience. He has gone from outright lying to waffling back and forth on such things as public financing, pull-out in the Iraq war, town hall meetings with McCain, NAFTA, gun control, etc.

His judgment comes into question when you think about his past association with the domestic terrorist, William Ayres, the crooked real estate broker, Tony Rezko, (Louis) Farakan and Jeremiah Wright. If it is not poor judgment, then you’ve got to really wonder who he is. Experience — he just hasn’t had any in most areas of the presidency, such as, administrative management, hard consequential decision making, foreign policy, military matters and dealing with other nations, in times of war.

Some youth and adults will vote for him because he is “cool.” Some blacks will vote for him because he is black. Some will vote for him because they hate Bush. Some will vote for him because they always vote Democratic. Others will simply vote for him because he has been able to mislead them with his speaking ability.

Considering all the above, coupled with his arrogance and elitist attitude, I can’t think of one reason Obama should be elected president during times when the lives of every American could be at stake. Except, if he is able to make us believe he is something he is not.

Johnnie McKay
Rusk

No tactic, however extreme, by Senator Barack Obama could ever result in a loss of support from his base. What he says and does now can only increase his supporters.

There are two main reasons for this from his two main sets of supporters, each having one main reason why: Hate and redistribution of wealth.

First, the haters Senator Obama has in his pocket are those who hate people and country. The people that are hated are the right and the religious right, and the country hated is the United States of America and its Constitution. Second, those who won’t work are relying on the Senator’s promises of redistribution of wealth over any other belief they may have that he will provide for them from breath to death by using other people’s money without costing them a single cent. These groups will not change their fealty to Senator Obama no matter what.

Senator Obama’s apparent move to the right is nothing but smoke and mirrors, deceit at its worst. The wise see through it, but the ignorant will take the bait. On that, of course, is what Senator Obama is counting.

Rod Whalen
Tyler

Barack Hussein Obama’s position shifts on key issues may bring in more rookie voters for him, but he may lose some of his base party.

His indecisiveness doesn’t surprise me because he’s a lot of hot air with one agenda — to get elected as President. His lack of a moral and spiritual center is obvious.

He did nothing of any merit for the nomination and in sharp contrast to his character instability is the honorable, stable character of our forefathers who based their efforts of creating a government on immutable biblical principles.

Lauri Dee Jones
Tyler

I believe Senator Barack Obama’s shift to and emphasis of more conservative positions will not keep him from being elected President when the alternative is a third Bush term for flip-flopper and so-called “maverick” John McCain.

Senator McCain tries to distance himself from Bush while unbelievably claiming he would make Bush’s tax cuts permanent and still balance the budget by 2013 while staying in Bush’s wars. Americans should be wise to the myth of Republicans claiming to be fiscal conservatives instead of the borrow and spend red-inkers they have been since Ronald Reagan.

Senator Obama’s recent pandering to the religions right (faith based initiatives) with all the grace of Otis Campbell entering the Mayberry jail, and support of further erosion of the Fourth Amendment (FISA expansion) will probably hurt Obama the most with younger more idealistic voters. However, he has the best chance to get our country out of its current (not mental) recession and to restore our respect, support and dignity abound the world.

Obama might not be “change we can believe in” and McCain is anything but “straight talk.”

But don’t blame me — I voted for Hillary.

Bill Bowen
Flint

Will position shifts help Senator Obama?

Who knows? Some people believe what they want to believe regardless of reality. That is what Senator Obama is counting on.

Senator Obama got the liberals’ attention with his big government, socialistic message. He has the most liberal record of any Senator in the U.S. Senate. Now, with “Bait and Switch” tactics, he hopes to get enough centrist and right wing votes to win the election. He hopes the liberals aren’t listening now. Or he hopes liberals will know by his record he is only joking now about his shift in ideas. They should know an ambitious politician says whatever he or she must say to get elected.

Senator Obama’s campaign is all about change, and he is able to change as quickly and completely as a chameleon. At first he was going to bring the soldiers home right away. Now, he is going to consult with the generals regarding the return of the troops. He was all for women’s rights to an abortion. Now he has refined his position. He is against partial birth abortion.

I have to admit, I like the new ideas better than the old ones, but I don’t believe this rhetoric any more than I believed he and his family sat in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years without being influenced by the hate-filled messages. If he wanted to be “inspired” by a different message, he would have changed churches before it became the political thing to do.

Obama’s solutions will result in higher taxes and bigger government. People should realize the cost of higher taxes will he passed-on to the consumers, and people lose their jobs when employers are forced to downsize because of higher costs and expenses.

Many economists say we are in a recession now. Many of these economists say if Obama’s ideas become the law of the land, we will see a depression. Is this the change we want to see?

Obama’s message of hope is a facade. If Americans follow his leadership, they might as well follow the Pied Piper. The result would be similar.

Mary Lou Bruner

Mineola

SEEN THE LIGHT?

According to the Accuracy in Media, “The Communist Party Backs Obama.” They also state “Obama showed his gratitude by going to socialist conferences and selecting Marxist professors as his friends in college.”

So how does this man that would not show respect for our American flag or the Pledge of Allegiance, has something over 100 days of experience as a U.S. Senator with the most liberal voting record, miraculously become a centrist over night? Either he has seen the light or is a liar. I choose to think the latter.

I believe that he would say anything and stop at nothing to win the Presidency of the U.S. Then after he should be elected, go back to his old liberal self, just like he was in the beginning.

Leopards don’t change their spots and neither do liberals. We do not need rock stars to show us the way. We need real leadership, and the Liberal Democrats have ruined our country, brothers and sisters, that is not leadership but elitist dictatorship.

Will this hurt Obama’s chances in November? My answer is, the election will be decided by the great unwashed and uninformed voters. Ignorance and apathy will rule, I don’t know and I don’t care. All they see is he’s for change. So folks, change you will get and not for the good. The only change that most of us will get will be the change in our pockets after he gets done.

Royce C. Hayes

Flint

POLITICAL SHIFTING

Historically, in almost every presidential election, the candidates from both major political parties used to modify their policy positions after wrapping up the nomination, in order to accommodate a more general audience than the primary voters. We see this shifting in this election too.

Both Sen. Barack Obama and John McCain have slightly shifted from their original positions, the former to the center and the latter to the right. Sen. Obama’s main message has been, and still is, change and unity; change the way Washington works and unify the country transcending the barriers of race, color, gender and political affiliations. I don’t think these are empty words or broken pledges.

From what I heard from his speeches and read from his columns (including the latest in

New York Times, regarding Iraq and Afghanistan), it is clear that there is no change from his original positions. He said from the very beginning that as President, he will pull out of Iraq in 16 months, leaving a residual force there to help the Iraqi counter insurgency effort, and give a higher priority in Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaida and the Taliban are getting stronger every day.

Regarding his stances on firearms rights, Sen. Obama always supported the rights of citizens to bear arms for self defense, but at the same time favored necessary restrictions at the local level. I would agree that his support of compromise rules for the government’s wiretapping program angered some extreme liberals who always held that this program is a violation of privacy rights of individual citizens.

Here again, the key issue of national security weighed more heavily in the general election campaign than in the primary where the core voters were leftwing party loyalists. Are the extreme liberals going to abandon him for his senate vote? I don’t think so.

It is ironic that the same people who tried to label him as an extreme radical and doubted about his patriotism, are now accusing him for modifying his position on national security. Shouldn’t we applaud him for rising above the party loyalists and supporting such a measure, rather than trying to label him a “flip-flopper”?

M.S.T. Namboodiri

Tyler