"All other ground is shifting sand"

I've seen several articles in the last few days commenting on, analyzing, lamenting, or lambasting Obama's recent moves toward the center. Thankfully, I do not have cable at the moment, so I have been spared the impassioned nonsense and trivialities they will certainly have been spewing nonstop over all of this. The main question raised in most discussions of the matter seems to be whether the Republicans will be able to create the image of Obama as a "flip-floper" like they did with John Kerry (fires of hell consume them). I have been rather annoyed with Obama over many of his proposals for the past few weeks, particularly his support for immunity for telecommunications companies that have assisted the minions of Satan Bush administration's domestic wiretapping program. He calls it a compromise to get certain protections codified. Fair enough, but I'm not happy about it. The faith-based funding stuff doesn't actually represent a change in his platform, and it might actually be a good idea. The Iraq thing, I think, is mostly a cosmetic change. But in terms of the media narrative and the Republican rhetoric, it matters very little whether any of the recent shifts are shifts in substance or merely in emphasis. It matters even less whether they are changes for the better. And even more irrelevant is whether McCain has changed his positions more often and more drastically than Obama ever has or will.

I was asked at a party yesterday if I would refuse to officiate at a wedding if the couple declined to undergo premarital counseling (assuming I ever make it out of the limbo that is the Methodist ordination process). My knee jerk response was that there is no way in hell I would ever officiate at such a wedding, and I would admit no exceptions, because once exceptions are allowed, everybody thinks their case merits one. No sooner were the words out of my mouth though that I imagined a couple of cases where I would probably throw out the rule book and open up the missal (in honor of the holiday, the case involved a soldier about to go on a mission from which he would not likely return). Would I be a hypocrite in such a case? Maybe, but I'd be a real asshole if I acted otherwise.

The point is that some flexibility is absolutely essential in real life. And with a politician, I think that the best that can be hoped for is that his or her campaign promises will indicate the sort of person he or she will be in office, and perhaps the policies that he or she would implement under ideal conditions. I voted for George W. Bush in 2000, when I was more conservative than I am now. Even if I still held the opinions I held back then, I would consider the first Bush administration a betrayal. There was a rather vast difference between compassionate conservative George Bush and nation building George Bush. Obama's recent shifts hardly deserve mention in the same breath. At worst, they confirm the long held suspicion of many that Obama is not the messiah. I believe Obama would be the first to agree. In the meantime, McCain has also been reinventing himself a bit, which in itself is not something I begrudge him. However, the particular direction he is going leads me to the conclusion that the John McCain I enthusiastically voted for in the 2000 primary (my first election ever-and unlike my vote for Bush, not one I would take back) no longer exists, and I don't like the new guy so much. The BBC's got a good list of both candidates' recent shifts/flip-flops/refinements.

Edit: It occurs to me that the lyric I attempted to quote in my title, the refrain of Edward Mote's hymn "My Hope is Built," is actually "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." Doesn't serve my point quite as well, but I wouldn't want to build on either.