Seems like a bit of an exaggeration to me, Gilly. I imagine FISA and Faith-based initiatives are very low priorities for nearly all voters.
As for his vote on FISA, he said:
"My view on FISA has always been that the issue with phone companies per se is not one that overrides security interests of the American people," Obama told reporters on June 25. "It is a close call for me but I think the current legislation with exclusivity provision that says that a president -- whether George Bush, myself or John McCain -- can’t make up rationales for getting around FISA court, can’t suggest that somehow that there is some law that stands above the laws passed by Congress in engaging in warrantless wiretaps."
Obama also said the FISA compromise was an improvement since it would put an "inspector general in place to investigate what happened previously gives us insight what has happened retrospectively. So, you know, that in my mind met my basic concerns and given that all the information I received is the underlying program itself actually is important and useful to American security as long as it has these constraints on them. I thought it was more important for me to go ahead and support this compromise."
Of course, his critics call that a flip-flop or a "move to the center to get elected", but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.
The bill was amended in such a way that he thought the good outweighed the bad, so now he supports it, or rather, no longer supports a filibuster except in the case that the telecom companies be given retroactive immunity.
That's not compromising his principles, that's just compromising on a bill to get shit done.
