Obama using McCain's Rhetoric

"Stubborn."

"Out of touch."

"Incapable of understanding" the economic crisis.

That's how Barack Obama and his presidential campaign team described John McCain last year when the Republican candidate famously said "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

But now President Obama and his advisers are adopting similar rhetoric as they try to build public confidence in an economic turnaround.

"Of course the fundamentals are sound," Obama economic adviser Christina Romer said Sunday.

The administration is now keeping the focus on "all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy," Obama said Friday.

Romer explained on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the country is in a temporary "mess," but that the president is focusing on fixing up those fundamentals, which she defined as "the American workers."

That's the same line McCain used last September -- before the worst of the economic crisis emerged -- to explain his confidence.

The rhetorical shift is just the latest in which Obama has shown strains of the views and policies of the man he defeated in November, even though in some cases he once criticized those views.

"Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?" Obama asked in Colorado last September after McCain expressed his economic optimism.

So what's changed? Obama has pushed through a $787 billion economic stimulus plan and announced new help for homeowners and the financial system -- but the Dow is down about 35 percent since mid-September.

"We're not in an election, so, of course, Democrats can flip-flop," Republican strategist Andrea Tantaros said.

In the case of the economy, analysts note that Obama is trying hard to tamp down the gloom-and-doom rhetoric he used in the weeks following Inauguration Day.

But Obama also seemed to weave in some of McCain's wait-and-see approach to winding down the Iraq war when he announced his troop withdrawal plan last month. - FOX News Story

It is amazing how you can say one thing, do another and they call in a flip flop. It is a lie. You tell me one thing to get my vote then do whatever it is you want to do. The sad part is the American people are so stupid that they just go with the flow.