Marathon Pundit: Obama 2002 anti-war stance not so risky

The Barack Obama camp, still silent on Cook County's stalled-for-now attempt to enact the nation's highest sales tax--scroll down for Obama's tie-in to that mess--is making a big deal about today being the fifth anniversary of an Obama anti-war speech made at a downtown Chicago rally.

In the Democratic debates I've watched, Obama always makes a point, in a dig at Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, that he's always been an opponent of the war in Iraq. Last week at one of those debates, Obama remarked, "And I was risking my political career because I was in the middle of a U.S. Senate race."

Really? Obama was a state senator representing Hyde Park, a very liberal part of a very Democratic city. Jennifer Hunter, in her Chicago Sun-Times column, offers more:

It's hard to believe that in true blue Illinois, Obama would have been put at great political risk by his outspoken stance on the war, even though there was, at the time, majority (see Republican) support for Bush's endeavor. Obama made his Federal Plaza speech before he officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

His opposition to the war never even became a major campaign issue. In fact, Obama underscored his stance during a February 2004 debate in which he tried to score points by accusing a primary rival of not speaking out against the war.

He may not like to admit it but Obama is essentially an ambitious pragmatist -- as his decision to invoke his 2002 speech on its anniversary today underlines.