WASHINGTON TIMES – Barack Obama, the senatorial candidate of 2004, might have a bone to pick with Barack Obama, the presidential candidate of 2008. Videotapes of debates and speeches that were obtained by The Washington Times show that Mr. Obama took positions during his Senate campaign on nearly a half-dozen issues ranging from the Cuba embargo to health care for illegal aliens that conflict with statements that he has made during his run for the White House.
For example, in MSNBC’s Oct. 30 presidential debate, Mr. Obama hesitantly raised his hand and joined with most of his Democratic rivals to declare he opposed decriminalizing marijuana.
But as a U.S. Senate candidate, Mr. Obama told Illinois college students in January 2004 he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use or possession, a debate video shows. “I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws,” Mr. Obama said during a debate at Northwestern University. “But I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana
When confronted with the statements on the video, Obama’s campaign offered two explanations to The Times in less than 24 hours. At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said the candidate had “always” supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting that his 2004 statement was correct. Then after The Times posted copies of the video on its Web site, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.
The spokesman blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the conflicting answers.
Mr. Obama’s differing answers on marijuana are among five conflicts between positions he took while running for Senate in 2004 and those he now articulates while running for president, a review of debate tapes shows. Experts said the likely reason for the changes was that Mr. Obama ran as a liberal during his Senate run but has become more centrist as he pursues the broad coalition required to win the White House. . .
The position changes include:
- In a 2003 forum on health care, Mr. Obama said he supported the children of illegal aliens’ receiving the same benefits as citizens, “whether it’s medical, whether it’s in-state tuition.” Asked specifically whether he included “undocumented” people, Mr. Obama replied, “Absolutely.” But in a CNN debate Jan. 21, when Mr. Obama was asked whether his health care proposal covers illegal aliens, he said “no” and that he first wants to cover the U.S. citizens and legal residents without health care.
- In 2004, Mr. Obama told an audience at Southern Illinois University, “I think it’s time for us to end the embargo with Cuba. . . It’s time for us to acknowledge that that particular policy has failed.” However, he stopped short of calling for an end to the embargo in a Miami Herald op-ed in August. He said he would rely on diplomacy, with a message that if a post-Fidel Castro government made democratic changes, the U.S. “is prepared to take steps to normalize relations and ease the embargo.”
- In an October 2003 NAACP debate, Mr. Obama said he would “vote to abolish” mandatory minimum sentences. “The mandatory minimums take too much discretion away from judges,” he said. Mr. Obama now says on his web site that he would “immediately review sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the ineffective warehousing of nonviolent drug offenders.”
- Mr. Obama told an AFL-CIO group in June 2003: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan.” But in a recent debate he said he has never endorsed such a plan. “Senator Obama has always said that single-payer universal care is a good idea because it would increase efficiency in the system, but the problem is that it’s not achievable,” Mr. Vietor said.
