Some of Obama's less publicized flip flops

Alex Conant of Politico has an interesting article on some of Obama's flip flops that have not received the attention of some of his major turnarounds like his no lobbyist pledge and his detainee policies.

Some of these lesser known flip flops have been mentioned at AT, others might surprise you.

1. Osama Bin Laden. During the campaign, Obama made a big deal about capturing the terrorist, calling him the "number one national security priority" for his administration.

By the time he was sworn in, Obama was saying that capturing Bin Laden was not necessary to "meet our goal of protecting America." His recent speech on Afghanistan announcing the troop increase never mentioned Osama.

There's more:

On human space exploration: Early in his presidential campaign, Obama had great reservations about the costs and risks of human space flight. He said he would delay NASA's plans to send humans to the moon and, eventually, Mars and, instead, spend that money on education. But, as Florida, Ohio and Texas became more politically important, Obama began to walk back his proposed NASA cuts, promising to fund unmanned space exploration and some other scientific missions.

Now that he's in office, Obama's reversal is complete: The White House budget, released earlier this month, provides a healthy increase in NASA funding and explicitly endorses the "goal of returning Americans to the moon and exploring other destinations."

On the Armenian genocide: In the U.S. Senate and on the campaign trail, Obama firmly declared that the death of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I was "genocide" - a touchy topic between Turks and Armenians and a political priority for Armenian-Americans - and promised that "as president, I will recognize the Armenian genocide."

Nonetheless, during his recent trip to Turkey as president, Obama broke his promise. Instead, he tried to muddy the waters, announcing that "my views are on the record and I have not changed views" but refusing to state what those views actually are.

Obama has also broken his promises on small business tax cuts, "don't ask don't tell," needle exchange programs, and allowing for 5 days of public comment before signing a bill.

David Axelrod recently told Politico that Obama's governance is "consistent" with his campaigning. Perhaps Mr. Axelrod was referring to another planet because here on earth, that is not how we would describe a guy who flip flops on so many issues.