Thursday, July 10, 2008
BARKING BACK - Friends weigh in with responses to the "barking" about Obama's swerve
"Well stated. I wish I could get comparable pleasure out of Barak's becoming a moderate Republican. I agree that if a candidate was remotely as progressive as we'd like, he'd have no chance at winning. And nothing that he does will so disenchant me that I wouldn't vote. Not a chance. But I have to admit my stomach turned when in the course of two weeks he sounded or tried to sound like he agreed with the pro-death penalty dissent on the court and agreed with the pro-gun owner majority on the court, then he opted out of federal financing on his campaign, hedged on withdrawal from Iraq, and more. All this a week or so after he waffled on his willingness to talk with even foreign leaders we don't like. Without a doubt I'll still vote for him, but at some point I may have forgotten why. Will his campaign reform efforts, Supreme Court appointments, and Iraq strategy and foreign policy decisions be based on these latest statements? Or can I, as some friends argue I should do, rely on the belief that he really is progressive but will only let that fact emerge once he's been elected? "
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"I'm with you--although i just hope he doesn't pass the center and join the right!"
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"On the other hand
The ideals that a politician actually holds inside himself, let alone those he openly espouses, and let alone those that remain by the time he enters office, rapidly degrade through enlightenment to reality, repeated compromise, pervasive peer pressure, and the corruption that inevitably accompanies power. Whatever he once may have been, 0bama is now very much a politician, very much subject to external manipulation, and not just until the election. That is, he can be steered so that harsh pressure from progressives may be well worth exerting. If he takes the support of progressives for granted, he will act like a "centrist" and could turn out worse for the country in the long run. If many progressives turn away in disappointment and he loses, that may even be best.There is something to be said for letting McCain be elected. It could be that the country's current problems will worsen no matter what, and whoever is president will be blamed. A full economic depression, a war of annihilation between Iran and Israel, a widening of the chaos in Africa, severe disruptions caused by global warming, including all sorts of of diseases, agricultural disasters, rioting and mass migrations all occurring during Obama's presidency would cause the country to quickly turn to a frankly dictatorial "man on a white horse" eager to declare emergency and substitute authoritarian rule for the already flagging American experiment in freedom..On the other hand, if the country gets the president it seems to deserve there would be an opportunity for another Roosevelt-like administration to follow. Obama would have a clear mandate and would be pushed by an outraged public to prosecute the people illegally profiting from the war, to break up the de facto monopolies, to balance the Supreme Court, disband the CIA and perhaps to form an uneasy alliance with China against Russia and our other enemies so that when we finally go down we would go down more gently."
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and someone else sent me this link with more on the subject
http://www.laweekly.com/news/dissonance/dissonance-obamas-middle-ground/19203/
