What's the Deal With Obama?  

Posted by Jessica in , ,

Copied and pasted from here:

The Obama Illusion
Presidential ambitions from the start

  • lent his support to the aptly named Hamilton Project, formed by corporate-neoliberal Citigroup chair Robert Rubin and “other Wall Street Democrats” to counter populist rebellion against corporatist tendencies within the Democratic Party
  • lent his politically influential and financially rewarding assistance to neoconservative pro-war Senator Joe Lieberman
  • supported other “mainstream Democrats” fighting antiwar progressives in primary races
  • criticized efforts to enact filibuster proceedings against reactionary Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
  • voted for a business-friendly “tort reform” bill that rolls back working peoples’ ability to obtain reasonable redress and compensation from misbehaving corporations
  • oppose the introduction of single-payer national health insurance on the grounds that such a widely supported social-democratic change would lead to employment difficulties for workers in the private insurance industry
  • expressed reservations about a universal health insurance plan recently enacted in Massachusetts, stating his preference for “voluntary” solutions over “government mandates.”
  • voted to re-authorize the repressive PATRIOT Act
  • voted for the appointment of the war criminal Condaleeza Rice to (of all things) Secretary of State
  • opposed Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) move to censure the Bush administration after the president was found to have illegally wiretapped U.S. citizens
  • distanced himself from fellow Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin’s forthright criticism of U.S. torture practices at Guantanamo
  • refuses to foreswear the use of first-strike nuclear weapons against Iran
  • makes a big point of respectfully listening to key parts of the right wing agenda even though that agenda is well outside majority sentiment
  • joins victim-blaming Republicans in pointing to poor blacks’ “cultural” issues as the cause of concentrated black poverty
  • he claims that blacks have joined the American “socioeconomic mainstream” even as median black household net worth falls to less than eight cents on the median white household dollar
  • “If the Democrats don’t show a willingness to work with the president, I think they could be punished in ‘08”
This was inspired from this article.

I don't know what it is and maybe it is just the fact that I tend to rebel from what is popular, but I don't like Obama. Well, sometimes, I rebel. I haven't read a single sentence from the Harry Potter books. The hype turned me off. I cannot stand Jaime Foxx. The hype turned me off. Haven't seen some of the most popular movies of our time (Pirates of the Caribbean). The hype turned me off. Adam Sandler isn't funny and I don't like his movies. The hype turned me off. (His best movie is Click and it is the only Sandler movie I own.) So maybe with all of the hype surrounding Obama, that explains why I don't support his candidacy.

When I talk to Obama supporters, I only hear how he offers people hope, how he is charismatic, and that he is a different type of candidate. I wasn't blown away by his DNC speech in 2004. The hype made me think it would be one of the best things I have ever heard. It wasn't. His speech announcing his candidacy was supposed to be amazing. I didn't think it was.

He doesn't really offer me hope. I think he can be charismatic. I think he is good looking, he is a great man who has done wonderful things, but I don't support him. I think his supporters have grand illusions about who he is, what he has done, what he represents and what he will do. I can't help but feel that his support is based on way too much hype and not enough substance.

And maybe I am crazy, but I can't just support a candidate based on hype and that he makes someone feel warm and fuzzy inside. I want more. I want their policy ideas, I want them to not tuck their tail and run when someone questions what they say. I want someone who shows leadership through their words and actions. I want someone who appeals to people all across this country. Not just the west, not just the midwest, not just the east, and not just the south. I want John Edwards.

1 comments

The problem with Obama is that his support is a mile wide and only an inch deep, as ossosed to Edwards who is a mile deep, but only an inch wide

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