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  Obama's views have changed with time
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ContributorGerald Farinas 
Last EditedGerald Farinas  Dec 22, 2007 04:23pm
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News DateSaturday, December 22, 2007 10:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionIf he wanted, the Barack Obama of today could have a pretty good debate with the Barack Obama of yesterday. And they could debate whether Obama has flip-flopped, changed some of his views. The Democratic senator from Illinois hasn't made any fundamental policy shifts but his decade in public office and an Associated Press review of his answers to a questionnaire show positions changing in smaller ways.

The shifts could suggest a liberal, inexperienced lawmaker gradually adjusting. On the other hand, political rivals could accuse him of abandoning potentially unpopular views or of trying to disguise his real positions.

Obama's campaign contends that voters can't learn anything about his views from the 1996 questionnaire, which was for an Illinois good-government group known as the IVI-IPO. Aides say Obama did not fill out the questionnaire and instead it was handled by a staffer who misrepresented his views on gun control, the death penalty and more. IVI-IPO officials say it's inconceivable that Obama would have let a staffer turn in a questionnaire with incorrect answers. The group interviewed Obama in person about his answers before endorsing him in that 1996 legislative race, and he didn't suggest then, or anytime since, that the questionnaire needed to be corrected, they said.
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