Duh....You meet a guy and its all roses and flowers. Then you marry and discover he uses your toothbrush, snores, tells the same 2 stories endlessly and has a secret addiction to porn. It could be worse.

For me, no surprises with Obama. The question on Hillary's war vote was always whether Obama would have done the same thing. And the answer, given his waffling throughout his brief political career in Chicago and Illinois, is most definitely. So the challenge is not to move him back to the left...he was never there and never will be...but to become reconciled to a centrist President who lacks a civil rights agenda, an economic program, a foreign policy or a social agenda of any scope. The lesson here is not that Obama is a wimp, but that he can be pressured to do the right thing on social issues (probably not on economic policy where his advisors are of one voice)...but will not take to it easily. Clinton too was a centrist when he entered office, ambivalent about abortion, supportive of gun rights, capital punishment and the like. But Hillary moved him on health, we got him to trade abortion for domestic violence (and he gave us VAWA), we got the Family Leave Act and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell...we lost ground on Welfare Reform, foreign and economic policy...and we'll probably lose with Barack too, though its a shame the neoliberals in the Obama camp were able to get him to ditch Powers after her Hillary comment, the only progressive in the inner circle. The rest, as anyone following the campaign knows, are all the Bill Clinton groupies...So once you've wiped your eyes, get down to the hard work of this soon-to-be-President earn his keep and thank God he's facing a poor, bumbling idiot, not a Bush.

great article! i'm sure some righty talk show will have you on to discuss this outrage. be sure to alert us when your on.

Obama may not be the full-bore progressive that many thought he was during the nomination campaign but that doesn't mean that those who are disappointed with him now should vote for McCain. Do you really want McCain as president after the Bush fiasco? McCain is so nutty that people will look back at Bush as being not so bad. Is that what voters who are disenchanted with Obama want? Hold your nose and vote for Obama!

Joan, I didn't know you liked Nat King Cole!

The rest of the bill now reinstates the FISA court as compulsory, after hard-won Democrat amendments.

Come now. This is simply not true. The original FISA Act also did this this. Restating something is no reinstaing it. And when the original statement is ignored as it has been for the past several years what would make anyone think that stamping your feet amd reiterating this point is a compromise or that it has any chance at all of effectively limiting wrongdoing?

This is why we have them.

If Obama continues to slide right, the superdelgates could switch their votes in Denver.

Ok, I know that's about as likely as pigs flying, but superdelegates are still a force we the people can use.

Contact the superdelegates who represent you (senators, governors, fundraisers, etc) and demand they put some pressure on Obama to represent his supporters and not "the middle." Suggest that blind support for misguided policies and flawed candidates can impact their own job security.

It's twigs in a flood, but enough of them can make a dam.

Speaking of pigs flying, there have been so many articles at Salon as of late about pigs and pork (even a piece on how to cure your own bacon) that I'm sure a flying pig piece is probably already in the works.

I'm so sick of Salon and it's clear anti-Obama agenda. Y'all are just so bitterly pissed off that Hillary didn't get the nom. I'm guessing that your entire staff is stirred up in a righteous fury at all times now. I'm so glad that I am no longer a subscriber, and am really considering just never coming back to Salon.com, ever again.

(Obama was smart to vote for it, it was going to pass anyway, and now he gets to NOT see himself in stupid Republican attack ads re: voted against giving us the tools to stop TERRORISTS, for this one issue anyway.)

After 7.5 years of blatant disgust with the worst president ever,we get worked up and excited that there may be a chance for real change or "hope" we get betrayed. I will not forget the FISA sellout.

Joan, this is why Dems lose Presidential elections.

Progressive journalist are unwilling to hold their nose and let their candidate do what is needed to win the election.

The radical right has embraced McCain. Fox can't get enough of him.

It is disgusting.

Don't go away discouraged. Write off to Salon and you might be elligable to win your very own pork chop key chain.

Anybody who read his books could have deduced Obama's true leanings. The books were peppered with signals to Wall Street that he would be no radical.

I supported him in the primaries anyway because I knew Clinton would carry the water for Wall Street and the Washington establishment. I thought Obama might, but at least there was a chance he might not. Alas, it was not to be.

Good God, you lot sound like jilted lovers and I can't help but wonder if you demand such ideological purity and obesiance of the others in your lives.

In what bizarro universe do you live that preservation of basic civil liberties equals ideological purism?

I was a rabid Obama supporter prior to this. I convinced my conservative parents to vote for him, and now I'm just ashamed. To hell with anyone who tells me I have to vote for Brand B Cynical Bet-Hedging Politican over Brand A Cynical Bet-Hedging Politician because he's "our guy." If he wants my vote, he'll fucking earn it by drawing a line in the sand and saying, "We won't cross here, for principle, for love of country, and certainly not just to win an election."