More and More, Obama Seems a Faux Liberal

[IndianaGreen]

More and More, Obama Seems a Faux Liberal

John R. MacArthur.President and Publisher, Harper's Magazine
Posted: December 16, 2009 01:03 PM

Following President Obama's war speeches at West Point and Oslo -- two breathtaking exercises in political cynicism that killed any hope of authentic liberal reform -- I've got only one question: Have the liberals who worshipped at the altar of "change you can believe in" had enough?

There was already ample evidence of Obama's feeble commitment to peace, progress and justice. Ever since he started fundraising for his presidential campaign, it's been clear that the principal change in the offing was skin tone and slogans. One only needed to read "The Audacity of Hope" to see how thoroughly Obama was enmeshed in the neo-liberal orthodoxies of the Robert Rubin-Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. Obama's impeccably establishment party credentials -- that is, his fealty to the Democratic leadership of Chicago and Capitol Hill -- practically guaranteed that he would hew to the status quo when forced to choose.

Even before he announced his candidacy for president, Obama endorsed the Iraq hawk Joe Lieberman for re-election to the Senate; then, when Lieberman lost the primary to the antiwar Ned Lamont, Obama made sure that he was never seen with the official nominee of the Connecticut Democratic Party, a bald act of realpolitik that helped Lieberman win as an "independent." In the U.S. Senate, meanwhile, Obama's voting record on Iraq war funding was identical to Hillary Clinton's.

Liberals, exhausted by President Bush and heartened by Obama's challenge to the pro-invasion Hillary, ignored their new hero's record and fixated on his one major anti-Iraq speech, delivered when he was a state senator. Ironically, it was Clinton who best characterized Obama's candidacy when she said that she and John McCain would "put forth" a "lifetime of experience" while "Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002."

Indeed, apart from extraordinary ambition, there wasn't much more to Obama than that one speech.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-r-macarthur/more-and-more-obama-seems_b_394341.html

[VMI Dem]

1. Jesus Christ, the man has always been a centrist. A right leaning centrist even.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[msongs]

3. umm obama is not a liberal of any sort, let alone faux liberal nt

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. Obama didn't claim to be a liberal. He ran as a centrist, and is governing as such

[liberalmuse]

5. I'm surprised you posted this.

I've never seen you post tons of anti-Obama shit before. :eyes:

[treestar]

6. I know, this is so unsual

:rofl:

[Writer]

7. Obama is not a liberal, or a conservative, or even a moderate.

He's a progressive technocrat. He couldn't give two shits about what ideological framework informs his policy.

[ej510]

8. He sides with corporations more than he sides with the working class.

[Writer]

9. But he's been battling corporations this entire time on this bill.

If he were pro-corporation, then why propose this sort of change to begin with?

[jefferson_dem]

10. Faux Liberal? When did he ever claim to be one?

Sorry to interrupt the outrage and all... but whoever thought he was a "liberal" was not paying attention.

Ok. Back to the outrage.

[Thrill]

11. It looks like he won't fight for anything. Thats the real shame

Its hard to continue to like a politician, that doesn't appear to want to fight hard on any position.