Sen. Barack Obama

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's strong stance against the Iraq war could become a major liability in his quest for the White House, says former Clinton administration strategist Dick Morris.

"The issue of the war in Iraq could backfire big time on Barack Obama," Morris told WND yesterday in an e-mail. "While the war is unpopular, so are any of the alternatives we have to deal with it."

Morris said that when voters "think about the chances that al-Qaida or Iran could use Iraq as a base from which to attack us, and when they focus on the human cost of our withdrawal, they will shrink from that course of action."

Obama has sought to position himself against his rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who voted for the October 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq war. Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, publicly voiced opposition to military action.

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Morris also believes Obama's position on the war could hurt him in the general election against the presumptive Republican Party nominee Sen. John McCain.

McCain wants to look strong, Morris argued, while Obama, "who has no clear answers for these questions, will look weak."

For Obama, looking weak is an Achilles heel.

Morris pointed out Obama is seen as 13 points less of a strong, decisive leader than McCain, according to the latest USA Today/Gallup poll.

Should Obama decide to take more of a hard line in the general election to combat his perceived weakness against McCain, Morris saw further problems. He drew a comparison between Obama's vulnerability over Iraq with Kerry's vulnerability in the 2004 election. During that campaign, the Massachusetts Democrat was shown on video clips used in Republican Party campaign ads saying he voted for $87 billion for the Iraq war before he voted against it.

"Just as Kerry was seen to be a flip-flopper over Iraq, so Obama can be made to be seen as weak over the issue," Morris said.

"In an age of terrorism, weakness is a capital crime," Morris writes in a column published today on his blog at DickMorris.com. "McCain needs to base his campaign on establishing Obama's weakness and his own strong leadership by comparison."

 

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