John McCormack dissects the Democrats and the gun issue over at the Weekly Standard.
With both contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination evading the gun control issue as if it were sniper fire, you couldn’t blame gun control advocates for feeling bitter. Yet Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence–the pro-gun control counterweight to the National Rifle Association–says Obama and Clinton are “coming fairly close to delivering the message we’d like.” On licensing and registering guns, Helmke says, they are “being realistic” in recognizing “there’s no support for pushing that forward at this stage.” His thoughts on the candidates’ ducking questions on the D.C. gun ban? “They’re politicians, and most politicians on tough calls do not answer.”
McCormack warns that private firearm sales may soon be regulated. On a tangential note, he reminds us of a side of Obama about which many of his passionate defenders get very emotional:
When moderator Charlie Gibson pointed out that Obama’s handwriting was on a 1996 candidate survey that said he favored banning handguns, Obama flatly denied his writing was on the questionnaire, contradicting what a campaign staffer had told Politico weeks earlier.
Obama represents a new, totally different politics. He’s not just another politician — the old kind that gets involved in sweetheart real estate deals or tells crowds of Christians and anti-free trade workers one thing but says otherwise in private meetings.
If you’re getting the impression that Obama is one of those old-school politicians, it is only because his campaign staff have an unfortunate habit of filling out surveys without his knowledge or consent — sometimes even in his own handwriting! It demonstrates the power of Obama’s message that he’s about to win the nomination despite such acts of internal sabotage.