Marathon Pundit: Obama fibs about 1996 liberal group survey

The ludicrously-misnamed Independent Voters of Illinois -- Independent Precinct Organization is in fact a far-left activist group which almost never endorses a Republican candidate in a general election.

Naturally it's a respected group among liberals, which is why Barack Obama in 1996 sought IVI-IPO's endorsement.

Three months ago Politico confronted the Obama campaign about the '96 questionnaire, and his aides replied that the the future junior senator from Illinois "never saw or approved" the IVI-IPO survey.

Politico has a different version of the story this morning.

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion — positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he has projected during his presidential campaign.

The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group's detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

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(Obama campaign staffers) asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who "unintentionally mischaracterize[d] his position."

But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama — the day after sitting for the interview — filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama's own handwritten notes added to one answer.