Obama '04 at odds with Obama '08

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By Jennifer Haberkorn

"Senator Obama has consistently said that U.S. policy toward Cuba has failed," Mr. Vietor said.

• In an October 2003 NAACP debate, Mr. Obama said he would "vote to abolish" mandatory minimum sentences. "The mandatory minimums take too much discretion away from judges," he said.(See clip below.)

Mr. Obama now says on his Web site, www.barackobama.com, that he would "immediately review sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the ineffective warehousing of nonviolent drug offenders."

When shown transcripts of the videos, Mr. Vietor said: "The American people want a president who is going to be honest with them and talk about how we can tackle the challenges we face."

The Times obtained the video footage of the public debates from a variety of sources, ranging from open sources such as YouTube to political operatives who oppose Mr. Obama's presidential campaign or his Senate bid in Illinois. Mrs. Clinton's campaign, for instance, recently released footage on its Web site of a 2004 speech in which Mr. Obama spoke about universal health care, accusing him of a flip-flop.(See clip below.)

Mr. Obama told an AFL-CIO group in June 2003: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan." But in a recent debate he said he has never endorsed such a plan.

"Senator Obama has always said that single-payer universal care is a good idea because it would increase efficiency in the system, but the problem is that it's not achievable," Mr. Vietor said.

Mr. Obama is hardly alone in facing charges of flip-flops. Mrs. Clinton has faced the "flip-flop" charge on the North America Free Trade Agreement. In 1996, she pushed husband President Clinton's trade agreement but now says that it has hurt American workers.

Mr. Romney also has faced criticism for supporting abortion and same-sex "marriage" when he was governor of Massachusetts, but now opposes both as he seeks the Republican nomination for president. Mr. Romney has said he was always pro-life but respected Massachusetts' existing laws.

Experts said there are some similarities between the cases of Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney.

In 2004, as a state senator, Mr. Obama found himself "among two of the most liberal candidates" in the Illinois Senate Democratic primary, Mr. Jackson said.

In that campaign, Mr. Obama was an underdog running against a millionaire businessman and the state comptroller. Mr. Obama won the primary, with more than 50 percent of the vote.

"Candidates, when they run in primaries, they're generally, on the Democratic side, they're a little further to the left, on the Republican side they're a little further to the right than what they run in general elections," said Paul Herrnson, director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. "Most voters are unaware of these issues unless there is really clear flip-flopping."

• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.