In his first weeks in the Senate, Obama managed to vote twice in favor of Rice as SOS, which even the lachrymose senior senator, Richard Durbin, couldn't bring himself to do. Like all but six of the Senate Democrats, Obama voted against Gonzales as AG, but his rather self-congratulatory remarks on Gonzales didn't go far in reassuring those of us who doubt his politics. It's appalling that we were relieved that he actually came out against torture. And in doing so he echoed administration boilerplate -- "...the seeds of democracy began to take root in Iraq..."; "...we are engaged in a deadly global struggle with those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms..."; etc.
Several people not published by the WSJ seem to have got him right from early on:
www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=&ItemID=5951
www.counterpunch.org/ruder08032004.html
The following is from the latter article. --CGE
=====================
...The day before his [Democratic convention keynote] speech, Obama told reporters, "On Iraq, on paper, there's not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago." He added, "There's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute."
The speech itself took Bush to task for lying about the reasons for war and for invading and occupying "without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world." In other words, Obama, the great liberal hope, thinks that Bush should have sent more troops--and that the Democrats are more capable of seeing the war on Iraq through to victory.
Obama is a gifted politician. Like Bill Clinton, he knows how to encourage people of opposite political beliefs to see what they want to see in his speeches and policy prescriptions. Thus, even Rich Lowry, a right-wing booster of the Bush gang, praised Obama's speech for its "hawkish attitude," its "rallying cry of unity" and its "authentic, unashamed" embrace of "an awesome God."
This method carries through on other issues. Obama finds a way to talk left--but makes it clear that he will never pose a threat to corporate interests or make a policy proposal that would carry a hefty price tag.
In Illinois, where it's obvious that the death penalty system is too flawed to fix, Obama is celebrated by liberals as a crusader for death penalty reform--but he continues to support capital punishment for "punishing the most heinous crimes."
Obama calls for tax breaks for American workers and government measures to create jobs. But he's a supporter of Corporate America's "free trade" agenda, and his convention speech praised Kerry because "instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas, he'll offer them to companies creating jobs here at home."
Obama claims to be a defender of the public school system who will campaign to put more teachers in classrooms. But he also trumpets charter schools--with their record of union-busting and siphoning funds from public schools.
In his convention speech, Obama didn't make the case for Democrats fighting for new government programs for poor and working people--or even defending existing ones. Instead, he echoed conservative themes attacking big government--but with a seductive liberal wrapper...
---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:38:40 -0700 (PDT)
>From: andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] noonan on obama
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
>
>OK, so Barak didn't come from a life of poverty. But
>there are two another disanalogies to Barak's credit:
>(1) Lincoln was a successful corporate railway lawyer,
>best in the East by all accounts if not smooth by
>eastern standrads, while Brak passed up the opporunity
>to make megabuck sin big firm law to teach; (2)
>Lincoln was, to use W's phrase, a divider not a uniter
>-- that was not his fault and maybe it wasa virtue in
>the times, but Barak is a uniter -- he actually can
>get downstate whites who have never voted for a black
>in their live to support him, not because he advocates
>conservative policies, but because he hasa gift of
>talking to people like one one I've ever seen. It's
>not Clinton's smarmy charm, it's just that he takes
>people seriously.
>
>
>--- snitsnat <snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> heh. from another list. I'll leave the msg from the
>> conservative in brackets for gits and shiggles)
>>
>>
>http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110006884
>> ...