Obama and the dodgy questionnaire comes up again.

Politics: Via Instapundit and HotAir.

POLITICO: 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’s 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. Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire. They 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 non-profit 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 adding to one answer. Busted. (Via Hot Air, which notes "Those positions won’t even fly with a large number of Democrats, let alone in a general election. The Hillary Clinton campaign has already begun making the argument to superdelegates that Obama holds extremist views so out of touch with the American electorate that he can’t possibly win in November. The questionnaire will bolster that argument, especially on guns, where the Democrats had tried to soften their stance since Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee in 2000.") This also underscores Obama's disturbing tendency to scapegoat his own staff rather than take responsibility, something he's demonstrated on more than one occasion. posted at 08:33 AM by Glenn Reynolds

This story about the questionnaire adds the final piece that was raised last year by USATODAY which the group that gives it out said his excuse that an aide filled it in sounded bogus.

IVI-IPO officials say it's inconceivable that Obama would have let a staffer turn in a questionnaire with incorrect answers. The group interviewed Obama in person about his answers before endorsing him in that 1996 legislative race, and he didn't suggest then, or anytime since, that the questionnaire needed to be corrected, they said.

Tapper at ABC lists numerous instances where Obama blames his staff for a screwup.

On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, campaigning in Idaho over the weekend said "there are people who say, `Well, he doesn't believe in the Second Amendment,' even though I come from a state — we've got a lot of hunters in downstate Illinois. And I have no intention of taking away folks' guns." In 1996, however, Obama said in a questionnaire that he "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns" -- a fairly extreme position. "Well he has to speak to his own record, which has obviously changed over a relatively short period of time," shot Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY. HOWEVER, it should be pointed out that this appears to be yet another example of Obama not being able to get good help. You guessed it -- his campaign says this questionnaire was filled out incorrectly by a staffer. (Read more on that HERE.) We've been following Mr. Obama's "The Buck Stops Over There" blame-his-staff trend since last June and, more recently, in December. Bang bang.

BTW, lets be clear about Obama and guns, he is a gun grabber of the highest liberal order.