mudwhistle

Candidate Barack Obama frequently promises to soar above partisan politics. But the theatrics of such declarations keep bumping into the reality of Mr. Obama's left-liberal record in Washington and the left-liberal record in Illinois state politics which preceded it. The latest reminder: As recently as 2004, Mr. Obama supported decriminalizing marijuana, opening relations with Communist Cuba and providing health care for illegal aliens.

In a little-noticed 2004 video featured today in The Washington Times, Mr. Obama sounds quite comfortable voicing his leftist leanings. "I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws," Mr. Obama told a Northwestern University audience as he campaigned for the Senate in 2004. "But I'm not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana." Fast forward to the fall of 2007, and Mr. Obama can be found hedging these views — meekly raising his hand at a Democratic presidential debate to oppose decriminalization. Wrongly, it turns out. Mr. Obama still supports it, according to a spokesman.

It is not just marijuana, relations with Cuba or health care for illegals. Mr. Obama is also one of the most pro-choice presidential contenders in history. His 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council as a state senator was just the beginning. Mr. Obama is known in pro-life circles for arguing cold-bloodedly on the Illinois Senate floor that babies who survive botched late-term abortions should not be considered "persons" because this would be tantamount to admitting "that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a — a child, a 9-month old — child that was delivered to term." This should horrify the two-fifths of Americans who consider themselves pro-life. It surely won't "unify."

Let's be realistic. Mr. Obama scores a 95 percent in the liberal activist group Americans for Democratic Action's ratings. He scores in the single digits when judged by conservative groups.

To be sure, Mr. Obama's personal story inspires, even unifies. But it would take much more to govern in unity. As a conventional left-liberal, Mr. Obama would be perhaps marginally likelier than John Kerry or Ted Kennedy to unify America. Indeed, much as the notion of Mr. Obama as the grand unifying force of the 2008 presidential election owes to the man's personal attributes, it is remarkable how often one hears "unifier" given how weak this case is on the policy merits. Indeed, the mirror opposite is true.

Obama on the record*-*-*The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

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Yes we can!

Veronica

Are you scared after the debates that he may be the candidate. He will trounce McCain. Start slinging the mud, but I don't think it will help your cause. By the way he is not in favor of health care for illegals.

Curator

The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

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“I truly believe that at this point in America’s history we need a president who will not just continue ... basically the policies we have followed in recent years. We need a president with transformational qualities.”

"For that reason, I will be voting for Barack Obama.”
- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

“You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.”
Gov Palin explaining her national security credentials.

mudwhistle

No I want him to be the candidate.

So he was against health care for illegals after he was for it. Got it.

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Yes we can!

winthrop

Campaigning against Kerry again?
Whether Mr. Obama was for or against it, it is not really the looming problem some would claim.

CHICAGO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Illegal Latino immigrants do not cause a drag on the U.S. health care system as some critics have contended and in fact get less care than Latinos in the country legally, researchers said on Monday.

Such immigrants tend not to have a regular doctor or other health-care provider yet do not visit emergency rooms -- often a last resort in such cases -- with any more frequency than Latinos born in the United States, according to the report from the University of California's School of Public Health.

The finding from Alexander Ortega and colleagues at the school was based on a 2003 telephone survey of thousands of California residents, including 1,317 undocumented Mexicans, 2,851 citizens with Mexican immigrant parents, 271 undocumented Latinos from countries other than Mexico and 852 non-Mexican Latinos born in the United States.

About 8.4 million of the 10.3 million illegal aliens in the United States are Latino, of which 5.9 million are from Mexico, the report said.

"One recurrent theme in the debate over immigration has been the use of public services, including health care," Ortega's team wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Proponents of restrictive policies have argued that immigrants overuse services, placing an unreasonable burden on the public. Despite a scarcity of well-designed research ... use of resources continues to be a part of the public debate," they said.

The researchers said illegal Mexican immigrants had 1.6 fewer visits to doctors over the course of a year than people born in the country to Mexican immigrants. Other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer physician visits than their U.S.-born counterparts, they said.

"Low rates of use of health-care services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants' overuse of the health care system," the researchers wrote.

"Undocumented individuals demonstrate less use of health care than U.S.-born citizens and have more negative experiences with the health care that they have received," they said. (Reporting by Michael Conlon; Editing by Maggie Fox and Bill Trott)

The decriminalization of marijuana has been a good idea for seventy years. Opening relations with Cuba is also a good idea. What has been the effect of our policy toward Cuba? Has it weakened Mr. Castro or made him step down? Has it prevented anyone who seriously wishes to do so from smoking a Cuban cigar or visiting Cuba as a tourist by way of Costa Rica?
Pointless policies should be abandoned or changed, and problems that are not really problems should not be held up as something they are not.

BillCosby

Your criticism in this thread of him would seem to indicate otherwiZe........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

mudwhistle

No everyone should know who and what they are voting for. Most of the people on this board are far lefties so it appeals to them when a candidate offers health care to illegals, loves a communist dictator, and wants to legalize drugs.

This board isn't like most of America though. Most American's don't want a President who is way out left like that. That's why Barry's going to be easy for us to beat.

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Yes we can!

winthrop

Mr. Mudwhistle wants Mr. Obama to be the candidate because he believes the lies about Mr. Obama being schooled in a "madrassa", or at least he believes such crap can be used against him in the general election, along with attaching some sinister meaning to the irrelevancy of his middle name and his reference to doing what many if not most young people do at some point in their lives, party and experiment with substances they probably should not. I know I engaged in such activity, as did virtually everyone my age and younger that I knew (Mr. Mudwhistle may have limited his experimentation to illegal moonshine), but the hope among Bush Cultists who dream of a surrogate to keep their disaster afloat is that such tactics would do to Mr. Obama what they did to Mr. Kerry.
Why he believes Mr. Obama would have any more baggage than Ms. Clinton to exploit is a mystery, although he may believe Ms. Clinton would have whacked everyone she thought would not support her.

BillCosby

us????? lol

Seems like there are a lot of ppl in the party not looking forward to Mcbush running as their man................. Even general rush is not on board..........

I would disagree that most here are far left......... I believe many here think they are, perhaps believe they are, but in reality are merely slightly to the left domestically............ Corporate democrats I believe is the proper term........

You know the kind...... Talk it up about the pO' ppl........ I am sure all the folks sitting on the walmart board got a good out of hearing all about it.........

You really should get out more often.......... No one uses terms such as communist dictator any more....... & trying to scare ppl w/ legalized drugs & illegals..........lol tis, tis..........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror