This recalls to my mind the presidential debate of 2000, when Al Gore took the position that, "he believes the evidence shows that the death penalty deters crime." Beyond doubt, someone as intelligent and well-informed as Al Gore was well aware that there's not a shred of evidence that the death penalty deters crime. While one would think that a one-time constitutional lawyer would be well-familiar with the contours of basic eighth amendment law, apparently such knowledge does not extend to the campaign trail.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
While I will at the outset acknowledge the dubious nature of using Yahoo! news as a source, their direct quotes seem credible enough to conclude that Obama has taken a stand opposing the recent Supreme Court decision holding that Louisiana's law permitting the execution of child rapists to be unconstitutional. There can be no other explanation for such a stance other than pure pandering to an ill-informed electorate, most of whom have probably never heard that this case was before the Supreme Court to begin with. Keep in mind, it is the most conservative Supreme Court since the Great Depression that has made this ruling. Apparently, the Court is not militantly right-wing enough for Obama's tastes, so that he has to throw them under the bus on the campaign trail and portray them as defending child rapists. Anyone who has been a constitutional law professor is well-aware of existing case law that has been on the books for thirty-odd years, holding that execution for any crime other than murder violates the Eighth Amendment. There is really no ambiguity here. Obama made a public judicial stance that he knows is completely false and unjustifiable, for the sole purpose of trying to score a few brownie points with culturally conservative moderates.
This stance is yet another example of a growing trend of disturbing plays to the "center". If I wanted a nominee who would make shameless, insincere, and indefensible panders to the right, I would have voted for Hillary Clinton. This strategy did not work for her, and it did not work for Rudy Guliani. It merely alienates the left, and the right doesn't buy into the bullcrap. Obama appears to be abandoning what got him to the point he is at: sincerity. If he keeps at the pace he is going, I'm going to become convinced that he was merely acting progressive in the primary in order win the nomination, and that his rhetoric of being an idealist was simply a mask for an enormously ambitious man who will say anything to attain power. When I first heard that he was backing off his stance about pulling out of Iraq, I scoffed at it as a Kurd politician believing what he wanted to believe. When it was the FISA capitulation, I really took notice and got angry with him for the first time. Then I became disappointed when he cut an advertisement for the incumbent DINO in Georgia facing a credible primary challenge from a genuine progressive. Now, with his position favoring capital punishment for child rapists, I am beginning to see a pattern emerging. So I ask my fellow Kossacks, who is Obama fooling, the uninformed public, or progressive activists?