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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I don't ask for much, I only want trust and you know it don't come easy.
Even though it may in many ways be wishful thinking, Keith's comments were thoughtful and hopeful (the election isn't till November - can't we wait another month before being totally disappointed with Obama). Glenn's comments were, as usual,comprehensively insightful and fearless. I live in Illinois and have voted for Obama three times (two primaries and a general) and can say he is above all else a pragmatist. When that pragmatism gets to the point (as I believe it did with the Clintons) where you don't stand for anything, then it is time to give up on someone who is only running to get elected. I will vote for Obama again and hope as Keith does and pressure as Glenn advises.
"Electing Barack Obama is a very important political priority but it isn't the only one there is, and his election is less likely, not more likely, the more homage he pays to these these tired, status-quo-perpetuating Beltway pieties."
I was a Hillary supporter who was perfectly content to go to the polls and vote for Obama. Until the past two weeks, that is.
For exactly the same reasons enumerated here, my current plan is to go to the polls, vote for local and state offices, and just leave the box for President blank.
As Greenwald has stated before, when "Democrats" move too far to the "center" (or past it to the right), it makes absolutely no difference who is in office. I have been arguing against this attitude in others for 20 years, but I believe we have finally come to the point where it's true.
When Bill Clinton ran for President, he did the "move to the center" crap and stayed there. His gutting of welfare and "Don't ask don't tell" abandoned long-held Democratic values.
George W. Bush ran his campaign so far to the "center" that it appeared at the time that he was running for Bill Clinton's third term. Of course, once elected, he became probably the most radical President in history and reverted completely to his right wing authoritarianism.
Which one will Obama be? Is he running to the center to collect low-information voters, so that once he is elected he will return to his support for the Constitution and civil rights? Or has he decided to sell his soul in his quest for the Presidency and become another Bill Clinton?
I've been away for a couple of weeks and had limited time with internet access. Has there been any change among top management in Obama's campaign? This list of his positions taken recently is an amazing catalog of capitulation. It seems like something must have changed to trigger this reversal.
If you don't stand up for your own ideals, and you can't stand up to the opposition party, why would anyone believe you could stand up to the terrorists?
Obama has gone from projecting a strength sufficient to lead this country against the terrorists, to projecting weakness by caving to the right. He's turned into Kerry, and may suffer the same fate. It scares me.
those asserting that pardons can't be issued until there are charges brought simply don't know what they're talking about
I made no such assertion. But I hope my question to Frankly---and Frankly's answers---were useful to the many non-lawyer lurkers.
I sent Obama several hundred $$$ during the primary campaign. But he's not getting another cent from me unless he radically changes his tune. He's still a better choice than McCain, but frankly he seems to be doing his best to make that not the case. I will vote for him and hope against hope that once he's elected he will get his act together.
Hey, I don't mean to derail the comments, but I was encouraging a friend to read some of your stuff and the first thing he asked was "How many people read him?". And I had no idea. Do you have any idea how many people read your posts? Thanks.
Obama totally undercut his lovely speech on patriotism with his media-induced aside condemning Clark. It's that kind of craven behavior that drains the meaning out of words about the glory of American ideals. The question now occupying this long-time Obama supporter's mind is this: are Obama's last two weeks a sign of cowardice or cynicism?
John McCain's experiences in Vietnam qualify him to be the CEO of General Electric, the General Manager of the Yankees, and the Director of the next Harry Potter film. Anyone who says differently is denigrating his service and hates America.
Obama has once more failed to cover himself with glory by pointing out that the mischaracterization by right wing partisan political operatives who say that General Clark was attacking John McCain's war record are deliberately and disgracefully misrepresenting the General's comments. General Clark was not attacking McCain's war record in any way whatsoever. Period.
GG is absolutely spot on today. If nothing else, the picks the for Supreme Court our next president will make are critical.
That's what scares me when I see Obama backing Scalia. We desperately need a real left-wing judge on the court, something that's been missing for decades. It seems that all democrats, like Clinton, think the only reasonable choices are centrist, right-wing or far-right-wing. It will require tremendous courage to defy that thinking and move six steps left. Now it becomes clear that Obama doesn't have that courage.
The group is up to 7400 members as of 10:30 a.m. eastern.
Why does everyone have to be dogmatic. Most of Greenwald's criticism of Obama's recent performance was on the mark. However, Obama's criticism of Move-on about their ad was correct. The ad was disgraceful. The issue is why did Obama take so long to stand-up to Move-On? The answer is it would have taken guts to stand-up to them and the Lefties who are not more happy with the truth than Bush and the Right.
There is no question, at least to me, that having Obama beat McCain is vitally important.
In what way is it "vitally important" to have Obama as president over McCain?
Has he given any indication whatsoever that he will govern substantially differently than McCain?
I'll give you that Obama will certainly be a better looking, more articulate president, but I can't for the life of me think of a single heinous thing McCain might do that I trust Obama NOT to do.
"The lesser of two evils" has for too long been the voting strategy of progressives who fall right into line for the politician with the 'D' after their name despite glaringly obvious non-progressive records or a record of shafting the base. (Sherrod Brown comes to mind with his MCA vote)If the progressive community as a whole had just ONCE in the past decided not to stand for it and sat on their asses and allowed the (generic, just name one) DINO to lose as a punishment for this specific reason the Party as a whole might have gotten a clue.
There is a reason Obama feels perfectly at ease in slapping the base around like a bitch. We have behaved like bitches.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
