Obama, McCain, Barr, and Heath Ledger

Pat Buchanan, our nation's leading ultra-protectionist, has an editorial in Real Clear Politics in which he wonders which way Barack Obama will Flip-flop next.


The essense of the piece is that we're a right-center nation. Obama had to run to the left of Hillary to win the democrat nomination, then go toward the center against McCain. Unless Obama really believes in his current spiel, he'll have to flip-flop even more after the election, simply because he's not truly insane.

Buchanan outlines a few of Obama's many flip-flops for us:

Thus, though he is the nominee of a party that is in thrall to the environmental movement, Obama has signaled conditional support for offshore drilling and pumping out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
While holding to his pledge for a pullout of combat brigades from Iraq in 16 months, he has talked of "refining" his position and of a residual U.S. force to train the Iraqi Army and deal with Al Qaeda.
On Afghanistan, he has called for 10,000 more troops and U.S. strikes in Pakistan to kill Bin Laden, even without prior notice or the permission of the Pakistani government.
Since securing the nomination, Obama has adopted the Scalia position on the death penalty for child rape and the right to keep a handgun in the home. He voted to give the telecoms immunity from prosecution for colluding in Bush wiretaps. This onetime sympathizer of the Palestinians now does a passable imitation of Ariel Sharon.

Buchanan doesn't mention any life or death issues like flag lapel pins.

McCain has been honored with an online Master List of flip-flops. There are hundreds listed.

Decrying Obama's lack of executive experience, and then nominating Palin is in there somewhere. That was one big John McCain flip-flop.

Then there's my guy, Bob Barr - a man who has recently performed a breathtaking double-gainer, touch your toes, back-flip-with-a-spiral flip-flop.

The judges gave him a "10" just for having the nerve to try it.

Barr has flip-flopped on The Patriot Act, The Defense of Marriage Act, Reform of Drug Laws, and just about every other social issue out there. He now calls himself a Born Again Libertarian.

There are plenty of others, but let me bring up just one more person: Heath Ledger. You may have heard of him. Heath Ledger was a sensitive, caring gay Montana cowboy in 2005. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Seemed like a nice enough person.

By 2008, though, something had happened. Ledger didn't give a rip about Jake Gyllenhaal any more. He seemed more like a psycho than anything else. He was killing people. He made a pencil disappear by shoving it into someone's eye. I have no idea what was going on with the makeup.

From 2005 to 2008, Heath Ledger went through a massive personality change.


What do Obama, McCain, Barr, and Ledger have in common?

Their scripts changed. (You don't really think these people write their own lines, do you?) When gas hits $4.00 per gallon, the "Ban On Offshore Drilling" script no longer makes sense. Preview audiences at Iowa shopping mall theatres gave it a "thumbs down". Therefore, the script got an alternate ending, known as "signaling conditional support for offshore drilling and pumping out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve".

McCain has a Democratic opponent with less executive experience than your typical McDonald's Assistant Manager, and didn't hesitate to say so. No one cared. So the new script called for a female governor who also had a shallow resume. This script drew crowds for about two weeks but now appears to be destined for cable.

Barr doesn't like being out of the public eye. He used to be a fairly generic Republican congressman until he got redistricted. Barr saw an opening in the Libertarian Party, got a new screenplay, and now there are at least two people driving around Fort Worth, Texas, with Bob Barr bumperstickers.

Heath Ledger, not necessarily the best actor listed on this page, was the most blatant offender. His movies actually gave credit to screenwriters ! ! ! Can you believe it? The nerve of that guy.

All of these changes are poll-driven, and are usually brought about by surveying small sample audiences. The alternate movie endings you sometimes get on DVD's are merely flip-flops not fully executed by the producers.

But from now on, let's not call them flip-flops. That's so John Kerry in the previous millenium.

They are all script changes.