Has Obama Lost the Trust of Progressives?

I wish I had the gift of words on just some days that Glenn Greenwald has every day. His sterling prose precisely depicts where I am today on further trust being invested in Obama's team, and I suspect most liberals/progressives feel just about the same. On this auspicious day after the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, who did not live to see the health care finance reform bill, which was one of his most special causes, pass, please contact your representatives in Congress and let them know your desires. I believe it will be called the Senator Edward Kennedy Memorial Health Care Finance Reform Bill (if the Democrats decided to pass it without allowing the Rethuglican corporate-driven changes). (Emphasis marks added - Ed.)

Has Obama Lost the Trust of Progressives, as Krugman Says? Paul Krugman has an excellent column today arguing that progressives have backlashed so intensely over the prospect of Obama's dropping the public option because - for reasons extending far beyond specific health care issues - they no longer trust the President. Citing Obama's steadfast continuation of Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies, the administration's extreme coziness with crisis-causing banks, and the endless retreats on health care, Krugman says that "a backlash in the progressive base . . . has been building for months" and that "progressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it."

Krugman contends that while "the fight over the public option involves real policy substance," it is at least as much "a proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities and overall approach."

That's the argument I made the other day about why the health care fight is so important regardless of one's views of the public option. The central pledges of the Obama campaign were less about specific policy positions and much more about changing the way Washington works - to liberate political outcomes from the dictates of corporate interests; to ensure vast new levels of transparency in government; to separate our national security and terrorism approaches from the politics of fear. With some mild exceptions, those have been repeatedly violated. Negotiating his health care reform plan in total secrecy and converting it into a gigantic gift to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries - which is exactly what a plan with (1) mandates, (2) no public option and (3) a ban on bulk negotiations for drug prices would be - would constitute yet another core violation of those commitments, yet another bolstering (a major one) of the very power dynamic he vowed to subvert.

Please read the rest here. Suzan ______________________________