Another day, another reversal by Barack Obama on a major issue. Obama’s newest ad titled “Dignity“, claims that Barack Obama slashed the welfare rolls by 80 percent. He was referring to the Republican crafted welfare reform which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. While it is true that welfare roll did reduce dramatically after the legislation passed, it is odd that Obama would consider this as something he could put on his resume.

For starters, Obama was not elected to the Illinois State Senate until 1997, so even had this been Statewide legislation (which it was not), Obama would not have had the opportunity to vote on it. The question then would be, how would Obama have voted if given the opportunity? As ABC News reminds us this morning, Obama would have voted against welfare reform.

Barack Obama aligned himself with welfare reform on Monday, launching a television ad which touts the way the overhaul “slashed the rolls by 80 percent.” Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction.

“I am not a defender of the status quo with respect to welfare,” Obama said on the floor of the Illinois state Senate on May 31, 1997. “Having said that, I probably would not have supported the federal legislation, because I think it had some problems.”

Obama’s transformation from opponent to champion of welfare reform is the latest in a series of moves to the center. Since capturing the Democratic nomination, Obama has altered his stances on Social Security taxes, meeting with rogue leaders without preconditions, and the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s, sweeping gun ban.

Considering Obama’s new ad is running primarily in State’s that Bush won in 2004, it is no surprise he wishes to associate himself with a successful program pushed by Conservatives. Obama has continually changed his messages throughout this campaign depending on which group he is speaking to. Had Obama admitted that he was against welfare reform in ‘97 but has since changed his position after seeing how successful the legislation was, I could have respected that. Obama has chosen instead to lie about his past, reminiscent of Clintonian politics which only proves that the more things ‘change’ the more the stay the same.

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Barack Obama, Election 2008, Entitlements