Barack Obama's move to the center from the extreme left took a quick side step to get Hillary's supporters on board. Now he's making awkward, phony moves towards the "purple states" and Reagan Democrats. All this confirms what we in Illinois have known for years -- Obama's simply a panderer, not a changer at all.

In the past few weeks the Democratic presidential nominee shifted his positions on issues such as his pastor Jeremiah Wright and his church, the public-funding of campaigns and the war in Iraq. Now he's trying to maneuver himself through the tricky abortion waters. This shift may be the most seismic yet . . .

Here's what he told a Christian magazine, trying to run from his radical extremist voting record as a senator in Illinois:

"My only point is this-historically I have been a strong believer in a women's right to choose with her doctor, her pastor and her family," Obama said. "I have consistently been saying that you have to have a health exception on many significant restrictions or bans on abortions, including late-term abortions.


"In the past, there has been some fear on the part of people who--not only people who are anti-abortion, but people who may be in the middle--that that means that if a woman just doesn't feel good then that is an exception. That's never been the case. I don't think that is how it has been interpreted.


"My only point is that in an area like partial birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously," Obama continued.

"It can be defined through physical health. It can be defined by serious clinical mental health diseases. It is not just a matter of feeling blue. I don't think that's how pro-choice folks have interpreted it. I don't think that's how the courts have interpreted it and I think that's important to emphasize and understand."

For a constitutional expert, Obama is either ill-informed or mis-educated, because the very day Roe vs Wade allowed abortion through all stages of pregnancy, from conception through the hours leading up to a child's birth, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court rendered another just as important decision. Doe vs Bolton defined the "health of the mother" to include her physical, psychological and familial situation. Indeed, for over thirty-five years, expectant mothers stressed or in difficult family situations have been able to end their babies' lives before birth.

It's hard to believe he doesn't know the truth of Doe vs Bolton and how it applies to Roe vs Wade. Barack Obama's reply is actually his M.O. He has always acted in public life as if he's convinced he's just a shade smarter than everyone else. We'll see if this crack in his slick political surface is the one that starts the earth shaking under his radical leftwing support.

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2008/07/obamas-phony-sh.html