Betrayed by Obama

I've admired Obama, but I never confused him with a genuine progressive leader. Today I don't admire him at all. His collapse on FISA is unforgivable. The only thing Obama has going for him this week is that McCain is matching him misstep for misstep. While we're railing about Obama's craven vote on FISA -- rightfully; Glenn Greenwald is a hero for his work on this topic -- McCain was outdoing Dick Cheney with neocon crazy talk, warning that Iran's test of nine old missiles we already knew they had increases the chances of a "second Holocaust." Every time I wonder whether I can ultimately vote for Obama in November, given all of his political cave-ins, McCain does something new to make sure I have to.

www.salon.com...



Could not have said it better.

If you don't like both of them, vote for Ralph Nader. I plan to either not vote, or vote for Ralph Nader.

reply to post by OralFixation


I think I will just write in "RON PAUL!" Obama has turned out terribly.

reply to post by bakednutz


Not surprised though...do you think this will demoralize some of his base?...How will his campaign justify this? The double speak should be impressive at least...still, this should quiet the race baiters...seems Obama hates us all equally.....

Originally posted by realshanti
reply to post by bakednutz

 

Not surprised though...do you think this will demoralize some of his base?...How will his campaign justify this? The double speak should be impressive at least...still, this should quiet the race baiters...seems Obama hates us all equally.....

I do think it will demoralize his base, maybe not a lot but some. Obama always appeared to be the clear winner to me in the coming election but, if he keeps this up im not so sure.

This is precisely the kind of thinking that has ensured that the Bush administration has remained in power for most of the last decade.

I believe the cliche is "making the perfect the enemy of the good"

I disagree with Obama on several issues - FISA is only the latest.

But I'm willing to live with the things I don't agree with because of the two candidates with a realistic shot, he is easily the more sensible.

Ralph Nader (Bush's best friend in politics IMO) is not going to be our next President, Ron Paul is not going to be our next President.
Our next President is going to be either Barack Obama or John McCain.

If you're really naive enough to believe there will be no difference between the two, I don't know what to say. Enjoy your untainted ideological purity, and whatever it does to the country.

Enjoy the McCain administration, I am sure he will be at least as good for our civil liberties as Bush has been

Bob Barr!
vote Libertarian! (why does everyone forget about them? weird!)

I heard a rumor that Jesse Ventura may run for President.

Would any ATS members vote for Jesse Ventura over Obama & McCain?

reply to post by xmotex


It will be one or the other if Bush doesn't pull a Martial Law situation out of his a** and suspend our elections.

It is not so naive, in my opinion, that people view the two candidates as the same. Isn't it really who is controlling them that matters... and aren't those entities one and the same?

Isn't it really who is controlling them that matters... and aren't those entities one and the same?

No, I do not accept that premise.

Clearly not everything that happens in our political system is transparent to the public. Clearly there are multiple parties exercising hidden influence on the process.

On the other hand, it's naive to believe that all those parties are "one and the same", or that they all share the same goals. It's not a conclusion supported by the evidence. It's also naive to believe that either candidate is under total control by any one single interest group.

Coalitions are formed between various concentrations of power, some operating largely in the public eye, some operating almost entirely behind the scenes. Politicians, at the highest levels, get support for their campaigns by appealing to various coalitions of these power brokers.

There is IMHO no "one ring to rule them all" - no one entity has total and absolute power. If they did, we probably wouldn't even be able to discuss this right now.

Just my $0.02 of course.