Barack Obama,  President 2008

Barack Obama Watch: The Left Wing Survey Flap

March 31, 2008 /

Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks at a campaign event at Soldiers and Sailors Military Museum and Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 28, 2008

The Politico has the FLAP.

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion — positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he has projected during his presidential campaign.

The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire.

They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize[d] his position.”

But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama — the day after sitting for the interview — filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes added to one answer.

So, why did Obama’s aides lie about the questionnaire?

Obviously, they do want to distance his Presidential campaign from the far-left political positions he has taken while an Illinois politician:

  • Opposed to parental notification on abortions. He amended this to say that he might possibly support it for 12- or 13-year-olds, but no older.
  • Flatly opposed the death penalty, a position he denied ever having.
  • Supported bans on the sale, possession, and manufacture of guns, again a position he denied ever taking.

So, the question is:

Does Barack Obama hold the same positions on abortion, death penalty and guns as he had in 1996? And, if not how have his views changed?

Please be specific.

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