As I have been saying Obama has no positions for some time, I figured it was time to prove what I allege. So I spent some time recently going through Obama's "Blueprint For Change" again. And, as I expected, I found very little in it that tells me what Obama will do.

It opens with a normal politico boilerplate introduction, nothing exciting there. I am sure the devout will someday write an exegesis on it, but to me it could have come from any campaign. That is followed by a full page platitude, a strange little addition which pads the booklet out to 64 pages by being repeated again and again. Now, I know Obama is supposed to be some mystical font of wisdom, but if I am looking for a concrete plan for change, I really don't need little motivational poster quality blurbs from the man. It just seems out of place. The whole thing looks more like a company mission statement or a university brochure.

Following that is a big section on transparency. This is the one section in which Obama does really take a stand. Of course, it is a a stand taken by just about every politician I have ever heard speak. He is against lobbyists, wants transparency, and wants to end undue influence. In other words, he is saying what every other politician says in public. No one has ever run on being for lobbyists or supporting undue influence. So, while I know he is taking a stand, it really is just the modern equivalent of "mom, baseball and apple pie", everyone is for it, so he is not exactly taking a stand here.

Let's move on.

Strangely, there is no little bite sized bit of Obama wisdom between the transparency section and the health care one. At this early point we are not yet used to it, but those little aphorisms appear between each major heading, making this quite apparent on the second reading. But, as that has little to do with my purpose, I will just continue along.

The health care section is left-leaning, but bland. In other words, I can't say it could be proposed by any politician, as I can't see McCain or Paul coming out for universal health care, but it is general enough to be from any Democrat's plan. Obama is for universal health care. That's it. No specifics, no details, just a statement that he's for it, and, as in every section, a list of his credentials. (More on that later.) So, we now know Obama is for universal coverage in general, and may support motherhood as well.

After another inspirational blurb, Obama launches into matters economic. As expected, he is for prosperity. No, really, most of the section pretty much amounts to "I will do what is good for the economy", again devoid of details. He even manages to have a section on trade which does not tell whether he is for free trade, restrictions, anything. Reading this he could be anywhere from Marx to von Mises. Well, there are a few jabs at business that make it clear he is a Democrat, but if you remove those he could be anywhere on the spectrum.

The one concrete proposal is not quite as concrete as it appears. Obama does promise a $1000 reduction in taxes for "working families". Now, as not all "working families" pay $1000 in taxes, or any taxes at all, I don't know if he intends another EITC here or not. But even ignoring that, this statement is still so vague as to be meaningless. What is a working family? Do Bill and Melinda Gates qualify? The both have jobs. As we learned when Clinton defined "rich" as $50,000/year for tax purposes, any tax breaks or increases targeted at specific groups can be manipulated easily. So, while it sounds like Obama is promising some sweeping tax break for the middle class here, he could be promising a handful of  alternate welfare payments to the "working poor" instead. What he promises is just too vague to be considered a real position.

After a half-page blurb, Obama moves on to promise he will protect social security. Need I say that few details are provided? He does give a sob story about being raised by his grandparents and goes on a bit about being nice to old folks, but his whole plan seems to be to increase or remove the payroll cap on social security taxes, somehow introduce transparency to medicare/medicaid and get cheaper drugs. In other words, standard vague boilerplate. Some positions that any politician could take, some that are Democrat specific, but nothing really original, and certainly not enough details to see with any specificity what he would do once in office.

Perhaps we can speed this up a bit, as the pattern should be becoming obvious. So, a half-page blurb, then promises to throw money at failing schools. Another half page blurb, more green jobs and no foreign oil, and he will make the sun shine brighter but stop global warming.  Another half-page blurb, and he swears loyalty to PAY-GO, as that has worked so well so far, and because no one can game the system under an Obama regime.  A full page blurb and we get promises of support for farmers, which is definitely a position no presidential candidate besides Obama would take. Another full page blurb and we get the required "pay equality" and "medical leave for women" content, standard for all Democrats. A half-page blurb and we get generic platitudes about "comprehensive immigration reform", and we all know how much those promises mean from any politician.

Another full page blurb. (Bear with me, we are in the home stretch now.) Now a plan to handle poverty, including the usual promises of moving the poor into the workforce, but sounding pretty much like the standard Democrat boilerplate. Another full page blurb, and then a volunteer service idea that has been kicked around by Democrats for years. Nothing new here. A half-page blurb, and some generic civil rights promises. In keeping with Obama's strategy of letting others make race an issue, he keeps the civil rights section shorter than the women's rights section, so as to maintain his claim of not playing on his race.

After another half-page blurb comes the section for which I had been waiting, his defense strategies. As expected* he is all for talking our enemies to death. He will withdraw from Iraq, talk to Iran, and eliminate nuclear weapons. On the other hand, he also somehow plans to end the genocide in Darfur, though how that goes along with his decidedly anti-aggression, anti-intervention plans, designed to make us everybody's buddy is not explained. Apparently, we need to be loved by everyone EXCEPT Sudan. And war is bad, except in Sudan. And we are in a quagmire in Iraq, just creating more terrorists, but getting into Darfur would never create more terrorists or involve us in a quagmire. In short, usual Democrat confusion, promising to get rid of all that icky military and make everyone love us, but also promising to use the military he eliminated to attack the villain du jour. Nothing new, but pretty pathetic at this level of political campaigning. Democrats usually try to hide their confused foreign policies a bit better than this.

Moving on.

A full page blurb and we get to the final section, Obama's plans for veterans. As this amounts to basically saying "Bush did wrong" and promising to throw money at the problem, I think we can just wrap this up.

Before I summarize, I would like to point out a rather annoying feature of the Obama brochure, the strange mix of arrogance and timidity. It is full of blurbs showing off Obama's way with words, which would seem to suggest a man far too in love with himself. But on the other hand, each section has a long, apologetic list of Obama's credentials in that specific area of policy. Reading through the brochure it becomes obvious that, for all the adulation of Obama, the write is also aware that Obama is a relatively inexperienced lightweight, and puts in these "qualifications" and "achievements" to justify Obama's run for president.

It all just gives a very conflicted message, half boast and half plea. It can be rather disconcerting at times.

So, having read through his official policy statement, what exactly does Obama believe? Well, not a lot, it seems. He has a lot of Democrat boilerplate, and some positions that could be embraced by any politician, but in every case, he is very light on specifics. He does make some specific statements about foreign policy, but those are more embarrassing than inspiring, as even Democrats are unlikely to be inspired by promises to leave the "quagmire" or Iraq only to jump into the "quagmire" of Darfur.

In short, Obama's document reads as content free and amateurish as the rest of his campaign. He is fine at spouting platitudes, and he can ramble at great length, so long as he avoids any details. Once he gets into specifics (as in his foreign policy) he says far too much, and shows his lack of experience. I just cannot see the Clinton campaign being foolish enough to either promise to eliminate nuclear arms or to invade Darfur. Both are likely to drive away large sections of moderates, the first for being too left, the other by alienating peaceniks. In this one case, he would have been better off sticking to his usual vague responses.

In other words, nothing in this document has changed my impression of Obama at all. He still has not really committed to any positions, and the few to which he has committed himself are unlikely to win him any votes.

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* This part is completely in keeping with Obama's previous statements on foreign policy. From his mysteriously aggressive stand on Pakistan, to his just plain mysterious statements about Iraq, Obama has not proven very strong on matters of foreign relations and defense.