I got locked out of Barack Obama’s fundraiser in Newport Beach Sunday so I patrolled the sidelines for hours looking for stories. I ended up getting a few good ones, which I wrote about for the paper here. On Monday, we wanted some extra stuff to advance the story so I did some more reporting, which you can read here.

But, believe it or not, I’ve got a little more.

What really intrigued me were the liberal activists on West Coast Highway who spent their beautiful Sunday afternoon holding signs to criticize Obama. Wait, did I just say “liberal activists?” Yup. Oh sure, it was a no-brainer to see where the abortion opponents holding up huge posters of aborted babies stood on Obama’s candidacy. But it’s interesting when someone who has no intention of voting for Republican John McCain decides to spend an afternoon heckling the Democratic presumptive nominee.

“Obama’s going to the center and he’s taking our votes for granted,” said Kathy Hundemer, a member of Code Pink’s Orange County chapter. Political junkies might recall that Code Pink dogged Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail after her vote to support the Iraq war.

“I support our military families and I don’t think he’s dialoguing with them,” Hundemer said.

She’s mostly concerned about Obama’s controversial remarks recently that he when he visits Iraq this summer he will carefully consider the advice of the military leaders there and suggested it’s possible it may take longer than 16 months to safely withdraw the troops.

“Now he’s going with the centrist view that maybe we will be there longer,” Hundemer said. “And we need to get them home. He’s started to listen to corporations and not the individuals who got him the nomination.”

Hundemer won’t vote for McCain because she’s concerned about his stance that he would appoint strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court. So the choice comes down to a third-party candidate or Obama.

I couldn’t help but think that isn’t a vote for a third-party candidate essentially helping McCain? And I don’t really understand the criticism of Obama’s comments regarding the war because it didn’t signal any change in his policy that I could see. He’s been essentially saying that throughout the primary. Plus, if you dig a little deeper in the research you’ll see that some of his former advisers like Samantha Power said the 16-month timetable was a “best-case scenario.” Obama always had qualifiers on the timetable. It didn’t appear to me that he vacillated. But, to be fair, he repeatedly reinforced the notion in the primary that he would get the troops out in a year and I can’t fault those who thought otherwise.

Pat Alviso of Huntington Beach worries about her son, Beto, a gunnery sergeant in the Marines who is serving in Iraq.

She speculated that Democrats worry that if they withdraw the troops a bloody revolution will result and it will hurt the party politically.

“He wants to do it clean and it’s too late for that,” Alviso said. She advised Obama to stop combat operations immediately if he is elected.

It’ll be interesting to see if the left-wing abandons Obama in November as he moves closer to the center and courts independents and conservatives. I happen to think he will consider Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel for his cabinet, and maybe even his vice president.

Gentry Glenn of Dana Point, whose husband is on his third tour of duty, had a different take on Obama’s move to the center. She said she appreciates that Obama has been reaching out to conservatives.

“He’s going to try to bring us together,” Glenn said. “I hope he listens to Republicans because I want him to be everyone’s president.”

She said for the last eight years as a Democrat she didn’t feel that President Bush represented her.

“It’s all about love, peace and working together,” Glenn said.

Now that’s a policy I think we can all get behind.

Bookmark to: