What does Barack really think about the death penalty?

Over the last week or so I've been reading Barack Obama's 'The Audacity of Hope' - his pitch to the American public, published 18 months or so before he ran for the highest office. Whilst so far it is a cracking book, I have been reading it with some degree of scepticism because I know that it was written by a man who wanted to run for preseident and therefore would not say anything that opposition parties could pounce upon. In other words, Obama's work has a very diplomatic air to it. Whilst he is of course a left leaning liberal, he professes his love for the US and, more importantly, fails to seriously crisitcise his opponents. The question is, is this the real Obama?

I found myself asking this question when I read the following quote:

"I believe that there are such crimes - mass murder, the rape and murder of a child - so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment."

This standpoint contradicts everything we think we know about Obama. He was against the war in Iraq, opposes Guantanamo and all forms of torture and, in many ways, is the most left wing President-Elect since FDR. He is perhaps even further to the left. The fact that he still supports the death penalty underlines an important point about the American political system.

A talking head on Channel 4 news tonight put the point amply enough:

'You forget, this is the United States of America. You cannot run for president and be against the death penalty. The last man to do that was Michael Dukakis [1988 v Bush I] and he didn't get many votes.'

This is very true; just as Obama has had to say he supports the death penalty (a law which I suspect, deep down, he deplores), his Democratic party has courted the religious right, in both cases for the purpose of winning votes. So when an 'upstanding' Obama presents himself as a new type of politician who doesn't 'play politics' in the traditional sense (i.e., pandering to interests), he clearly does...Am I criticising Obama for this? No. In truth, he wouldn't have achieved what he has done recently has he not professed his support for the ultimate punishment.