Buyer's Remorse - Rethinking President Rainbow from Agonizing Despair

I love Mike Whitney. And he speaks for me here.

Anyone who has ever wasted good money on a clunker only to drop the transmission 15 minutes after leaving the car-lot, knows the feeling. It's like a swift-kick in the groin followed by weeks of fist-pounding rage. It's called buyer's remorse; "Gawd, I wish I hadn't bought that piece of dogshite!"

No doubt there are a lot of former-Obama supporters feeling that same agonizing sense of despair even though it's been less than three months since President Rainbow took the oath of office.

What a disaster. Did anyone know it was gonna be this bad?

For the record; I didn't vote for Obama because I didn't like the way he backpedaled on wiretapping and because he promised to escalate the war in Afghanistan. (Like everyone else who voted for Ralph Nader; I got loads of grief for it) But that doesn't mean I didn't want Obama to succeed. I did. The country is in too big a mess NOT to hope that he would succeed. But now...?

Let's just forget about the fact that Obama never lifted a finger to stop Israel's two week rampage through Gaza which killed 1,100 unarmed civilians and destroyed much of the critical infrastructure. And let's give him a pass for equivocating on Iraq, Georgia, missile defense in East Europe, Cuba, NAFTA, FISA, torture, war crimes, the Employee free Choice Act (EFCA) and any other issue that's important to liberals, progressives, leftists or anyone else who eats with a fork or walks on two legs. And let's excuse Obama for stepping up the air war in Afghanistan even though another 140 Afghan villagers were blown to bits 10 days ago while sitting in their schools, sleeping in their beds or having dinner with their families. (After all, Obama did say he was sorry, didn't he?)

Now Obama is backing off on his promise to withdrawal troops from Iraq in 16 months. And, now he's planning to restore Bush's kangaroo courts (Military tribunals) for prisoners at Guantanamo who've never even been formally charged with a crime! And, now, he's threatening to hold some prisoners indefinitely in the U.S. without trial. (http://news.antiwar.com/2009/05/14/obama-mulls-indefinite-detention-without-trial-for-detainees/)

What gives?

This is worse than Bush, much worse: because now we're stuck with an charismatic, flannel-mouth who knows how to divert attention from the tightening repression and the ongoing occupations.

Obama is an unprincipled poseur; a snake charmer; a complete phony. No wonder the gushing David Brooks has been singing his praises lately. No wonder Andrew Sullivan calls him the "Neocon in Chief" especially since he's become the new darling of far-right loonies like Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot. Heck, even Cheney was talking-up Obama's bloody AfPak policy a few days ago. That says it all, doesn't it?

We'd have been better off with that doddering old fool McCain. At least with McCain you know what you're getting.

Which many have been slow to pick up on about Obama. But not most of us here in blogtopia.

Thanks, Mike.

We needed that.

Suzan ___________________