A questionnaire shopped by opponents of Barack Obama suggests the candidate, as he ran for State Senate in 1996, is a lot more liberal than his campaign says he is. The questionnaire, first reported by Politico, purported to show Obama was opposed to capital punishment, supported a single-payer health care plan and supported laws that would prohibit possession of handguns.

Obama opponents are having fun with the questionnaire and the campaign's reaction to it. Speaking on MSNBC last night, Washington Democratic Rep. Adam Smith, a top surrogate for the Illinois Senator, said an Obama staffer filled out the form without getting it approved.

To some Democrats backing other candidates, the example is the latest example of Obama blaming a staffer rather than taking responsibility. "Maybe throwing people under the bus is how they are promoting the use of mass transit," said one Democrat working for a rival campaign.

The Boston Globe today pointed to Obama's missing a face to face meeting with New Hampshire Fire Fighters and a controversial memo labeling Hillary Clinton "D-Punjab" as other examples in which Obama blamed staff for miscues. "It doesn't speak to folks looking for a President who is decisive and says the buck stops with him," the Democratic operative said.

Still, Smith defended Obama in an interview with Politics Nation. Running for office, Smith said, "the buck stops with you every single day." Noting that unauthorized questionnaires had slipped through cracks in his own campaigns for State Senate and Congress, Smith said the error was understandable. "You cannot even begin to imagine the blizzard of questionnaires that come through your office."

"It was Senator Obama's mistake. What we were trying to correct was the notion that positions in that memo were ones that Obama had ever held," Smith said. "They were not."

Pointing to Obama's chief opponent and recent questions about planted audience members, emails insinuating that Obama is a Muslim plant and suggestions from a top Clinton supporter that Obama's past might be used against him by Republicans, Smith said no campaign is perfect. "Senator Clinton has had to throw a hell of a lot more people under the bus than Obama," he said. "I'll give Senator Clinton slack on that. You've got thousands of people working for you on a presidential campaign."