Legal Commentary

Bad Argument For Obama Fans

By Big Tent Democrat

Matt Yglesias makes the argument all Obama fans should avoid:

I don't believe that if Clinton and Obama swapped roles that they'd be acting any differently [on the FISA Capitulation bill].

The argument made against Barack Obama's opposition to the Iraq Debacle was that he was not in the Senate and would have voted differently if he was. I always battled Clinton supporters on this claim. All we know is what he did do and he vigorously opposed the Iraq Debacle. It is ridiculous to argue about "swapped roles." Here, Clinton did the right thing and Obama did the wrong thing. On Iraq, Obama did the right thing and Clinton did the wrong thing. It is crazy for Obama fans to argue that Obama's changed his FISA Capitulation position because of the politcal race he is in (I say it, but I am no Obama fanboy). One could then argue that had Obama been in the Senate in 2002, he would have voted for the IWR. Why open that can of worms? I say give him credit for his good positions and rip him for his bad ones.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 09, 2008 (boomark / email).