THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF THIRD WAY AMERICA...:

Barack W. Bush?: Of late, Obama seems to be promising a third Bush administration. (Victor Davis Hanson, 7/10/08, National Review)

Obama is now a gun-rights advocate. Like Bush, he applauded the Supreme Court’s overturning of a Washington, D.C., ordinance banning the possession of handguns.

The senator, also like Bush, supports the death penalty. He recently objected to the court’s rejection of a state law that allowed for the execution of child rapists.

And although Obama is still pro-choice, he now — like the president — thinks “mental distress” should not justify late-term abortion.

In addition, the new Obama would like to continue — and even expand — Bush’s controversial faith-based initiative program of involving churches in government anti-poverty programs. [...]

During the primaries, Obama seemed to advocate the dismantling of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But now candidate Obama has little desire to overturn the present Bush trade policies.

On foreign policy and the war against terror, Obama once leaned left in his primary battles against Hillary Clinton. But his latest mutations move him once again closer to George W. Bush.

For all his prior talk of the loss of civil liberties, a President Obama, like President Bush, would give telecommunication companies exemption from lawsuits over tapping private phone calls at government request.

Obama wants to continue Bush’s successful multilateral efforts to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, and now praises the Bush-inspired six-party talks with North Korea that led to the apparent dismantling of Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Like Bush, he advocated expanding the military after the Clinton-era troop cuts. Obama once advocated lifting the embargo against Cuba — but no longer. Like Bush, he thinks that it is wise to leave it be.

There is suddenly not much difference when it comes to the Middle East, either. Palestinian supporters were dismayed to hear Obama promise that Jerusalem must be Israel’s eternal and undivided capital.

Obama once criticized Bush for his unwillingness to meet directly with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and exaggerating the danger from Iran, which supposedly didn’t “pose any serious threat.” Lately though, he agrees with the president that Iran now in fact is a “grave threat.”

...whichever candidate convinces the American people that he's most like Bill Clinton/George W. Bush will be the next president. That's an especially difficult for the candidate of the Looney Left who just knocked off Hillary Clinton, but you can't blame him for trying the 180.

MORE:
Obama's Liberal Shiver (Froma Harrop, 7/10/08, Real Clear Politics)

Watching liberals grope for first aid as Barack Obama does an about-face on their most cherished issues, one recalls a scene from the 1950 movie "All About Eve."

Theater critic Addison DeWitt takes great offense when a manipulative young actress tries to sneak her schemes past him. He snarls, "Is it possible, even conceivable, that you've confused me with that gang of backward children you play tricks on -- that you have the same contempt for me as you have for them?"

Obama has indeed shown contempt, or at least insensitivity, toward the thinking liberals who handed over their hearts based on his stances concerning -- among other things -- warrantless wiretapping, campaign finance reform and our continued presence in Iraq.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 10, 2008 7:12 PM