Obama on Pot

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jan/31/obama-flip-flops-on-pot/

Barack Obama, the senatorial candidate of 2004, might have a bone to pick with Barack Obama, the presidential candidate of 2008.

In MSNBC’s Oct. 30 presidential debate, Mr. Obama hesitantly raised his hand and joined with most of his Democratic rivals to declare that he opposed decriminalizing marijuana.

But as a U.S. Senate candidate, Mr. Obama told Illinois college students in January 2004 that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use or possession, a debate video shows.

“I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws,” Mr. Obama said during a debate at Northwestern University. “But I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.”

When confronted with the statements on the video, Obama’s campaign offered two explanations to the Times in less than 24 hours. At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the candidate had “always” supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting his 2004 statement was correct. Then after the Times posted copies of the video on its Web site today, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.

“If you’re convicted of a crime, you should be punished, but that we are sending far too many first-time, non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws,” Vietor said. The spokesman blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the conflicting answers.

After all the clarifications, it’s still unclear whether Obama supports decriminalization or not.  In 2004, he supported it.  In 2007, he opposed it.  Then his campaign spokespeople say he supports it, and then they say he’s opposed to it.  Then they blame the confusion on the meaning of decriminalization, without clearing up the confusion.

It’s either complete incompetence, or they’re trying to take BOTH positions by having different people in the campaign muddy the waters with contradictory statements.  It’s a new kind of confusion!  It’s confusion we can believe in!  Yes we can!