Sunday, October 31, 2010

Typical Obama Supporters


 "Let's see here.  I need to shower, shave, eat some oatmeal, put on my new Obama T-shirt, grab my 9mm and hold up a convenience store.
New Fashion Rage In Police Mug Shots, These are actual Police Photos.

Just think about this for a second:
Did you ever see anyone arrested wearing a Bush T-shirt, or for you older guys, an Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, or even Nixon, or Bob Dole shirt.
There MUST be a message here, but I can't quite grasp it.
 Maybe you can help me out here....

Sign says it all.

Yep, American citizens have had it with Mr. Barrack Obama and the Democrats.
The sign below just sums up the feelings of the American tax payer.


God bless the American people!
...

Friday, October 29, 2010

More Racism from Barrack Obama


Barrack (Racist)  Obama is encouraging Hispanic voters to remain loyal Democrats’ by stalling immigration "reform". Obama openly asked Hispanics  to vote against Republicans on Election Day. More notably, President Obama is spreading hate language and dividing Americans with his speech to the Hispanic group the other day “punish our enemies and reward our friends,”
In a radio interview that aired on Univision, Obama assured Hispanics that immigration overhaul was next on the agenda, despite the lack of Republican support:

If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, "We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us," if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s going to be harder, and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2.
The New York Times reports, “The interview was taped Friday in Los Angeles for a show hosted by Eddie "Piolin" Soltero. Mr. Soltero’s radio show is immensely popular among California Hispanics. At the start of the interview, the Mexican-American comedian gave Mr. Obama "multiple" choices of what to discuss. A.) immigration reform, B.) immigration reform, C.) immigration reform, D.) all of the above. Mr. Obama took D. " ‘Absolutely,’ the president said.”
For the Dems, the outcome of the midterm elections will make all the difference in whether comprehensive immigration reform, a.k.a. amnesty, is passed.
Criticizing Republicans, Obama stressed in his interview, “Those aren’t the kinds of folks who represent our core American values.”  What does Obama know about "American values"? His father was not an American and Barrack the 2nd, never grew up in America!
Obama also took the opportunity to demonize Arizona for the passage of its anti-illegal immigration legislation. The Obama administration continues to hold up the federal government’s lawsuit against the state of Arizona for SB 1070 as an example of the White House’s unwillingness to pass on immigration reform.
 Obama asserted that Nevada voters would be in a better position to see immigration reform with Senator Harry Reid in office instead of his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle. According to the President, Angle is “completely opposed to comprehensive immigration reform.” So, Barrack can openly lie about a republican woman that is running for office. Whatever happened to a President that promoted his party with ideas and vision? This Barrack guy is just, disgusting.
The Blaze views Obama’s assertion to “punish our enemies and reward our friends” as an affront to “fellow Americans who don’t agree with his liberal policies.”  Understand this…in a nut shell, If you don’t agree with Barrack Obama, you are an enemy of America!
News organizations such as the National Review and Fox News view Obama's remarks during his Univision interview as polarizing, creating an “us vs. them” atmosphere.
Worse, Americans see the comments as threatening. According to Prison Planet, the statements were “astounding new levels of rhetoric from the Great Uniter.” Weasel Zippers calls it “Leftist demagoguery at its finest.” Death By 1000 Papercuts asked: “Why does this president’s rhetoric sound increasingly like it’s coming from a dictator of some two-bit Marxist hellhole? Maybe it’s some sort of wish fulfillment.”

Hope and Change, how is that working out for you?

Why, aren't social liberals just dandy

"When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground." --Thomas Jefferson


National Public Radio fired its longtime news analyst Juan Williams [last] week for saying something that many Americans feel. Williams, who also works as a Fox News Channel contributor (as I do), told FNC host Bill O'Reilly that when he gets on an airplane and sees someone in Muslim garb, he gets 'nervous.' Williams prefaced his remarks by reminding viewers that he had written several books about the civil rights movement. 'I'm not a bigot,' he said, noting that his uneasiness has a basis in fact. He recalled the would-be Times Square bomber's words last week when he was sentenced to life in prison for trying to detonate a bomb. 'The war with Muslims is just beginning,' Williams paraphrased. But Faisal Shahzad's actual statement was far more chilling. Shahzad warned those in the courtroom: 'Brace yourself, because the war with Muslims has just begun. Consider me the first droplet of the blood that will follow.' And Shahzad's tirade is only the latest in a long string of invectives by those who claim to speak for Islam. Such vile threats cannot help but provoke fear.... Unfortunately, NPR chose to punish Williams for admitting his fear. That doesn't solve anything. ... It is unfortunate that we live in a world in which one group's religious faith can make the group an object of fear. But it is not Juan Williams or others like him who are the chief culprits in this state of affairs. It is those who fly airplanes into buildings in the name of Allah who should be blamed by everyone, including their co-religionists who share no guilt for these crimes." --columnist Linda Chavez for the The Patriot Post (www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/ )"

 Why, aren't social liberals just dandy?  Aren't they full of understanding and compassion? Don't they champion the middle ground and seek to do as any good moderates would, a fairness in America?
No, they are spineless little people that never got recognized in high school. never got to play on the team or join the school club because they were social out casts, just as they are now. Through some cosmic catastrophe...they landed and became "news reporters" or lawyers and then....government officials unless they stayed in their most comfortable environmental, animal rights, socialistic, green peace groups. 


Really, the Mad American has had it with them. As it relate to politics and common sense, they are a waste of the air they consume, Their twisted views (Barack Hussein Obama II) are like a cancer on America!

Understand this about the difference in the world as it relates to Religion;
Christians are called to spread their faith through the love of Jesus Christ.  
Muslims are called to spread their faith by killing all who do not believe as they do and to kill anyone in their own religion that does not follow the law to the letter ( Muslim Sharia law). They believe the surest way to get to Heaven is to die killing none Muslims.  

Get your head out of the sand and look around....any sane peace loving, freedom loving person should be scared, very scared!

....

Thursday, October 28, 2010

News from the Heritage Foundation


October 27, 2010 | By Bethany Murphy

Heritage's Plan to Reform Congress

The midterm elections are now exactly a week away. And these elections could transform the way that government in Washington runs.
The Heritage Foundation doesn’t have a dog in any of the election fights. As a non-partisan organization, we are in the unique position of being able to hold members of both parties accountable to uphold conservative values and principles.
Heritage has developed a plan that could help make congressmen more accountable to the people that elected them. If enacted, this Heritage proposal would change what elections cannot: how Congress itself is run. A shakeup of Congress’ internal structure could help newly-elected conservatives get a hearing for their ideas.
We have four major recommendations that both parties should implement before November 15, when new committee members will be chosen.
·         The steering committee, rather than party leaders, should select all committee chairmen and members.
·         Party leaders should no longer dominate or control the steering committee. This would allow rank-and-file Representatives to nominate and elect the controlling votes on each steering committee.
·         Term limits should apply to all House and party leaders, including the Speaker, as well as to committee chairmen and ranking members.
·         A cap should be placed on the overall size of each committee—such as a 50-member maximum—to avoid scenarios where committees wield a disproportionate amount of influence over the House.
“Over the last several decades, legislative branch authority has become overly concentrated into the hands of a few select leaders of the majority party,” Heritage experts Ernest Istook, Matthew Spalding and Michael Franc argue, “rather than the decentralized lawmaking body that is more consistent with its constitutional responsibilities.”
What does this mean? Because Congressional leaders often require that their members to vote in a bloc, lobbyists and members of the executive branch only need to convince a few Congressmen of the merits of the bill before it is voted on. 
Currently, party leaders choose committee chairmen, who have enormous power to shape legislation. Changing the way committee chairmen are chosen is just one important step in reforming the way that Washington operates on a day-to-day basis.
Heritage’s proposal is a useful guide to how the House can be made more responsive to public opinion.  By diluting the authority of party leaders, the reforms could create a less partisan Congress. This, in turn, could allow lawmakers to more easily seek solutions across party lines, as they would be less beholden to party leaders. Bringing fresh faces to Washington may change the appearance of Congress, but structural changes will change Congress’ performance – for the better.

> Other Heritage Work of Note

  • Unions—and particularly teachers unions—are notorious for keeping even bad workers on the payroll.   But while bad teaching may not be a good enough reason to fire a teacher, Heritage’s James Sherk reports, political disagreement is enough reason to fire a union worker.  “Duane Hammond . . . had a job helping build a stage for an upcoming Obama rally in Los Angeles,” writes the Heritage labor expert. “His union fired him because he wore a sweatshirt with the name ‘Bush’ on it.”
  • National Public Radio, a supposedly unbiased company that receives government funding, has come under attack for its recent politically-motivated firing of Juan Williams.  Heritage’s Mike Gonzalez examines this situation and concludes: “They present themselves as an objective media organization, but they’re not.”
  •  “In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they came out by the thousands. They were some of the first on the scene and among the last to leave,” writes James Carafano about the State Defense Forces, groups of state volunteer militia that provide invaluable disaster relief without very much funding.  Because of their low-cost, invaluable assistance, Heritage’s expert on homeland security believes that these forces should be expanded in various states.
  •  “When King George III asked if the colonists could boycott British goods, his solicitor general informed him it was beyond the power of the king to mandate that his subjects buy specific goods like tea,” writes Heritage’s Conn Carroll. Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli compared this to the new mandate to buy health insurance. “The power of the United States government under the Constitution must be smaller than that of King George,” Cuccinelli said.

> In Other News

Bethany Murphy is a writer for MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Nathaniel Ward; Amanda Reinecker and Andrew Vitaliti, a Heritage intern, contributed to this report.


Monday, October 25, 2010

Obama in the words of John Voight

Now THIS is a real strong statement that America has been waiting for! This took real guts by  Voight.  He probably just ended his career  in Hollywood. Voight just laid it out in a letter he reads in this video. No moderate position here! There is no time for such weakness. If America as we have known it, is going to survive the Obama assault, we must speak united, with one voice and shout no! No to a liberal, socialistic society that Obama and his liberal followers wish to ram down our throats. No to a bankrupt America. No to unsustainable entitlement programs. No to bowing down and speaking from a position of weakness to other countries. No to a government takeover of health care in America. No to an expanded role of government in our lives!
READ the position, writings, statements of our founding fathers and understand their fear of the type of government that Obama is promoting. His administrating has shredded the constitution and has America on the path to total collapse.


 God Bless Voight!   The Voting has Begun!
......

Friday, October 22, 2010

Thank you Barack Obama for Hope and Change!


Thank you Barack;

Obama destroyed the Clinton Political Machine, driving a stake through the heart of Hillary's presidential aspirations - something no Republican was ever able to do.


Obama killed off the Kennedy Dynasty - no more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home.

Obama is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes! Dennis Moore had never lost a race. Evan Bayh had never lost a race. Byron Dorgan had never lost a race. Harry Reid - soon to be GONE! These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed. By the end of 2010, dozens more will be gone. Just think, in December of 2008 the Democrats were on the rise. In the last two election cycles, they had picked up 14 Senate seats and 52 House seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party. However, in just one year, Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the House - if not the Senate - back to the Republicans.

Obama has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Sadly, every generation seems to need to re-learn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge. Obama is bringing home the lesson very well:

Liberals tax, borrow and spend.

Liberals won't bring themselves to protect America.

Liberals want to take over the economy.

Liberals think they know what is best for everyone.

Liberals are not happy until they are running YOUR life.

Obama has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan. In one year, he has rejuvenated the Conservative Movement and brought out to the streets millions of freedom loving Americans. Name one other time when you saw your friends and neighbors this interested in taking back America!

Obama, with his "amazing leadership," has sparked the greatest period of sales of firearms and ammunition this country has seen. Law abiding citizens have rallied and have provided a "stimulus" to the sporting goods field while other industries have failed, faded, or moved off-shore.

In all honesty, one year ago I was more afraid than I have been in my life. Not afraid of the economy, but afraid of the direction our country was going. I thought, Americans have forgotten what this country is all about. My neighbors and friends, even strangers, have proved to me that my lack of confidence in the greatness and wisdom of the American people has been flat wrong.

When the American people wake up, no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them! Barack Obama has served to wake up these great Americans!

Again, I want to say: "Thank you, Barack Obama!" After all, this is exactly the kind of hope and change we desperately needed!!

Vote to save America and change the direction Obama has us headed on. Vote the Socialist and Liberals out of office...send them home!
....

Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Documented and Very Long List of Obamas Lies

By popular demand, a comprehensive list of expired Obama statements . . .
HEALTH-CARE MANDATES
STATEMENT: “We’ve got a philosophical difference, which we’ve debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don’t have it is not because they don’t want it but because they can’t afford it.” Barack Obama, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate, February 21, 2008.
EXPIRATION DATE: On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the individual mandate into law.
HEALTH-CARE NEGOTIATIONS ON C-SPAN
STATEMENT: “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN, and so the public will be part of the conversation and will see the decisions that are being made.” January 20, 2008, and seven other times. 20 STATES ARE SUING OVER HIS RAMMING HIS HEALTH CARE DOWN THE THROATS OF THE CITIZENS
EXPIRATION DATE: Throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2009 and 2010; when John McCain asked about it during the health-care summit February 26, Obama dismissed the issue by declaring, “the campaign is over, John.”
RAISING TAXES
STATEMENT: “No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase.” (multiple times on the campaign trail)
EXPIRATION DATE: Broken multiple times, including the raised taxes on tobacco, a new tax on indoor tanning salons, but most prominently on February 11, 2010: “President Barack Obama said he is ‘agnostic’ about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.”
RECESS APPOINTMENTS
STATEMENT: Then-senator Obama declared that a recess appointment is “damaged goods” and has “less credibility” than a normal appointment. August 25, 2005.
EXPIRATION DATE: March 27, 2010: “If, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis.”
BORDER SECURITY
STATEMENT: “We need tougher border security, and a renewed focus on busting up gangs and traffickers crossing our border. . . . That begins at home, with comprehensive immigration reform. That means securing our border and passing tough employer enforcement laws.” Then-candidate Obama, discussing the need for border security, speaking in Miami on May 23, 2008. NOW HE IS SUING ARIZONA
EXPIRATION DATE: March 17, 2010: The Obama administration halted new work on a “virtual fence” on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.
GUANTANAMO BAY
STATEMENT: Executive order stating, “The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” January 22, 2009.
EXPIRATION DATE:  November 19, 2009: “Guantánamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed.”
MILITARY TRIBUNALS
STATEMENT: “Somebody like Khalid Sheik Mohammad is gonna get basically, a full military trial with all the bells and whistles.” September 27, 2006
EXPIRATION DATE: Ongoing. “President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash. Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York.”
RECOVERY.GOV
STATEMENT: “We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.” – President Obama, January 28, 2009
EXPIRATION DATE: “More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going . . . The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn’t have a search function, when its purpose is to ‘root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.’” April 2, 2009
Eighteen from his first 100 days:
1. “As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
2. “I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA].
3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that “labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis.”
4. “Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.”
5. “If we see money being misspent, we’re going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it.
6. “Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.”
7. “I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper.”
8. “[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell.”
9. “Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online.”
10. “We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’s seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”
11. “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime.  I repeat: not one single dime.”
12. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights.”
13. “We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.”
14. “Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!
15. “The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result.”
16. “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”
17. “Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.” Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.
18. A special one on the 100th day, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.”
And a list from of promises that expired during the campaign:
IRAQ
STATEMENT: “Based on the conversations we’ve had internally as well as external reports, we believe that you can get one to two brigades out a month. At that pace, the forces would be out in approximately 16 months from the time that we began. That would be the time frame that I would be setting up,” Obama to the New York Times, November 1, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: March 7, 2008: Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, to the BBC: “You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that [Obama has] crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.”
Also: July 3, 2008: “My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I’ve said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe,” Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. “And my guiding approach continues to be that we’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.”
STATEMENT: On June 14, Obama foreign-policy adviser Susan Rice called the RNC’s argument that Obama needed to go to Iraq to get a firsthand look “complete garbage.”
EXPIRATION DATE: On June 16, Obama announced he would go to Iraq and Afghanistan “so he can see first hand the progress of the wars he would inherit if he’s elected president.”
DEBATES
STATEMENT: May 16, 2008: “If John McCain wants to meet me, anywhere, anytime to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, Iran, the Middle East or around the world, that is a conversation I’m happy to have.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 13, 2008: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe: “Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day — the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July [on the Fourth of July] and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.”
IRAN
STATEMENT: “We can, then, more effectively deal with what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace, and that is Iran,” Obama speaking to American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago, March 5, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE:  “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny . . . They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” – May 20, 2008
STATEMENT: Question at the YouTube debate, as the video depicted leaders of the countries, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?”
“I would,” Obama answered. July 27, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: May 10, 2008: Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign-policy adviser to the Democratic candidate: “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”
JEREMIAH WRIGHT/TRINITY UNITED
STATEMENT: “I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother.
–Barack Obama, March 18, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: on April 28, 2008, Obama cut all ties to Wright, declaring, “Based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought.” 20 Some Years??? Hummmm
STATEMENT: Obama said on March 18, 2008, that his church, Trinity United, “embodies the black community in its entirety” and was being caricatured.
EXPIRATION DATE: On May 31, 2008, Obama resigned his membership at Trinity United Church.
JIM JOHNSON
STATEMENT: Criticism of running-mate vetter Jim Johnson’s loan from Countrywide was “a game” and that his vice-presidential vetting team “aren’t folks who are working for me.” June 10, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 11, 2008, when Obama accepted Johnson’s resignation.
FISA
STATEMENT: Obama spokesman Bill Burton on October 24, 2007: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 20, 2008: “Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”
NUCLEAR ENERGY
STATEMENT: “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.” Barack Obama, December 30, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: The above statement actually was the expiration date for his previous position, “I actually think we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix,” expressed on July 23, 2007; the above statement expired when he told Democratic governors he thought it is “worth investigating its further development” on June 20, 2008.
NAFTA
STATEMENT:  Tim Russert:: “Senator Obama . . .  Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, ‘This has not worked for us; we are out’?”
Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE:  June 18, 2008, Fortune magazine: “’Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,’ he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA ‘devastating’ and ‘a big mistake,’ despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.
“Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? ‘Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,’ he answered.
“‘I’m not a big believer in doing things unilaterally,’ Obama said. ‘I’m a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people.’”
PUBLIC FINANCING
STATEMENT: “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Also, a Common Cause questionnaire dated November 27, 2007, asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”, Obama checked, “Yes.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 19, 2008: Obama announced he would not participate in the presidential public financing system.
WORKING OUT A DEAL ON PUBLIC FINANCING
STATEMENT: “What I’ve said is, at the point where I’m the nominee, at the point where it’s appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”Obama to Tim Russert, Febuary 27.
EXPIRATION DATE: When Obama announced his decision to break his public-financing pledge on June 19, no meeting between the Democratic nominee and McCain had occurred.
WELFARE REFORM
STATEMENT: “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation [to overhaul welfare], because I think it had some problems.” Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate, May 31, 1997
EXPIRATION DATE: April 11, 2008: Asked if he would have vetoed the 1996 law, Mr. Obama said, “I won’t second guess President Clinton for signing” it. Obama to the New York Times.
GAY MARRIAGE
STATEMENT: “Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” – campaign spokesman, May 5, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 29, 2008: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states . . . Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” — letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION
STATEMENT: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.” – interview with Relevant magazine, July 1, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: July 5, 2008: “My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases.”  — statement to reporters.
DIVISION OF JERUSALEM
STATEMENT: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” – speech before AIPAC, June 4, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 6, 2008: “Jerusalem is a final-status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with.” – an Obama adviser clarifying his remarks to the Jerusalem Post.