The Spandex Method

ATTENTION: I changed the name of my blog yet again. But I like this name more becuase it actually discribes what I try to do when I write. I try to write something tought provoking which no one else has discussed yet. Other wise I'd just be copying and pasting articles. Anyway, here it is, spandex method!

Both Mitt Romney and John Kerry where ridiculed for being flip floppers. Being for and then against the war in Iraq, in Kerry’s case, and being for and then against abortion, in Romney’s case. If the flip flop represented the Kerry and Romney campaigns then spandex should be the clothing symbol of the Obama campaign.

The flip flop accusation is hurled at politicians for being in favor of a certain policy only to be against it when politically necessary, or visa versa. However, the spandex technique, created by Barack Obama, is to stretch one’s original stance to encompass as many positions as can possibly fit. Making Obama the one size fits many candidate.

The most recent example of this is Obama’s speech in response to his association with Rev. Jeremiah Right. In a very passionate and well delivered speech, Obama admitted that Rev. Right’s speeches on America presented, “…a profoundly distorted view of this country…” He went on to say that Right’s comments were “…not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity…”

Obama then took an odd turn in his speech by saying he would not distance himself from Rev. Right. His reasoning was that Right’s divisive statements are only one dimension of a many-dimensioned man.

And so the spandex continues to stretch.

Obama has made unity and change key themes in his campaign. In that speach he reaffirmed that commitment to be a unifier and overcome the racial divide which exists in this country. But he said he would stand for unity by standing by a man who has (once again in Obama’s own words) made “…not only wrong but divisive…” statements. “…[D]ivisive at a time when we need unity…”

Obama is not flip flopper. And honestly why flip flop when you can spandex. He can stand for a principle and then stretch that principle to mean just about anything. In this case he stands for unity.

His pastor makes some divisive comments. Does Obama stand against him? No, didn’t you hear him? He’s for unity, which means we need to include everyone. Conservatives and progressives, republicans and democrats, unifiers and dividers. To unify is to understand everyone’s point of view, try to understand them and accept him or her as they are.

Spandex still stretching.

What an enlightened age we live in! Had Marin Luther King Jr. understood this he would have understood that if he wanted to overcome the racial divide he needed do embrace divisive people such as Bull Connor. Why fight a civil war, if the United States was looking for unity it should have reached out in friendship and brotherhood to Jefferson Davis. I'm sure he was somebodies uncle.

Obama basically said in his speech he will stand for unity while standing by divisiveness. Do these two principals seem like oil and water to anyone else but me? Of course this is only one recent example of the spandex method being applied.

Obama is also standing for a closer relationship with Canada while standing by labor unions in the US who want to scrap NAFTA.

And as for Iraq, Obama has defined that he stands for peace and security, but has yet to concretely define by what means, leaving him the flexibility and elasticity to stretch and move. This giving him the ability to continue being the one size fits many candidate.

The question is how much longer will the spandex be able to stretch before it finally it can’t take any more and finally breaks?

Jason Bentley is currently a broadcast journalism major at BYU and a news junkie.