The Obama Report

During an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program, California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger told host, George Stephanopoulos that there's nothing wrong with a Presidential candidate engaging in flip-flopping in order to win an election! However, Mr. Schwarzenegger engaged in a bit of waffling himself as he attempted to explain his position.

Here's a partial excerpt from the interview:

Stephanopoulos: "Here in California you [Schwarzenegger] won more than half of the independents, a quarter of the Democrats. If John McCain is going to win, he's going to have to do the same thing. How does he get those voters? He's not getting them now!"

Schwarzenegger: "Well, I think the most important thing is that you have to invade the center line.... You've got to cross and invade over that center line.. .I think what I have done in California is...I have crossed the line ..and took things that normally, traditionally, in California were democratic issues...That's what they have to do on a national level...."

Stephanopoulos: "So it sounds like you're saying Senator McCain should be even bolder in crossing the lines."

Schwarzenegger: "You have to be bold. But it is very, very hard to do that, because when you go through a campaign you try to first to win the primaries. And when you cross the line, it backfires. So you have to be very careful in order to get the nomination, and then after you get the nomination you can then wander a little bit more to [the other side]. and hopefully he[McCain] will do that. And the same is with Obama. What he has done consistently is he has been very much to the left and he is now more and more going to the right.."

Stephanopoulos: "You think that's smart?"

Schwarzenegger: "Well, that's what they have to do! In politics out there they always say, 'well now, I don't know anymore what he really stands for, he has just changed his mind and he's flip-flopping and all those kind of things. Let me tell you something, 'flip-flopping is a getting a bad rap'. Because I think it is great when someone has made a mistake..I mean someone has for 20 or 30 years been in the wrong place with his idea and with his ideologies and says, "you know something, I change my mind, I'm now for this". As long as he's honest...I think that's a wonderful thing..You can change your mind. There's nothing wrong with that. I've changed my mind on things, and there's is nothing wrong with that.. I just say to the people, 'I once thought this this way, now I think this way..."

Obviously, Schwarzenegger is being disingenuous. First he stated that a Presidential candidate must make a calculated shift and move to the center - after he's won his party's nomination - "because that's what they have to do" in order to win the election - which incidentally, is a preposterous statement, in and of itself.

But then he says "flip-flopping is a getting a bad rap, because ...when someone has made a mistake.. and says,'I change my mind'.... as long as he's honest...that's a wonderful thing.."

Now, making a mistake and admitting to it is not the same thing as intentionally shifting your position after the the primaries are over.

Schwarzenegger is clearly waffling! But if you watch the entire interview [you can watch it by clicking here] and listen closely to him as he discusses, among other things, his position on withdrawing US troops from Iraq, you'll see this guy is very similar to Obama in the way he waffles and straddles both sides of the issues.

In case you're wondering: why did Mr. Schwarzenegger go to so much trouble to defend Barack Obama's flip-flops?

Well, here's the deal: Schwarzenegger, who previously had endorsed John McCain and called him a Republican role model, has suggested that he would be willing to serve as an energy and environment czar under Senator Barack Obama should he win the presidency.

So now you have the answer.

And quite frankly, considering Schwarzenegger's proclivity for 'waffling', he seems perfectly qualified to work for Obama.