Having read through most of David Plouffe’s book on the Obama Campaign, I am beginning to feel a bit more hopeless. Since President Obama’s election, I know I have been critical of his choices of staff and find myself increasingly critical of his policies. As an Obama supporter, I felt a strange sense of anomie as I watched him choose his staff and begin to govern. After reading through Plouffe’s saga, I think I know why: I suspect that the candidate Obama was not the genuine Obama, and that we have been taken.
The candidate Obama ran as a DC outsider: a man who told us that fundamental change in our politics was vital. He promised changes in lobbying practices; an end to Gitmo, Iraq and a genuine reconsideration of Afghanistan strategy; an end to Wall St. abuses with effective regulation; an end to Bush tax cuts and a break for the middle-class and home owners in foreclosure, an end to back room deals at taxpayer’s expense – an audacious list of changes that resonated with Americans long disaffected with the system.
President Obama has chosen to surround himself with the same DC insiders that helped to create the economic and foreign policy disasters we face today. Just look at the headlines. Obama invoking Bush Administration rules of government secrecy; Obama Administration weakening Investor protections; Obama Administration opposed extending Unemployment Benefits; Obama Administration cut a deal with AIG to not pay back bailout money even as they are giving out larger bonuses than last year; Obama Administration making a secret deal with Pharma to keep drug prices high…
Under the Bush Administration more and more wealth was being controlled by less and less Americans. Unemployment, homelessness and poverty were increasing and Americans were dying in a useless and pointless war. The Obama Administration has not changed a single policy that created this epidemic of human misery.
Some people want to cling to hope, but as a realist I consider actions – not words. Some people want to blame Summers, Geithner and Emmanuel, but it was Obama who chose them.
My mother taught me that you are judged by the friends you keep, and President Obama chose Wall St. Oh, the audacity of it all…
FiegerTime - Geoffrey Fieger's Blog 
Fieger is telling the truth, and people must recognize policy decisions for what they are: policy. They are not some feint for a later greater good. These issues are the same now as they were in 1939 when Frank Capra made the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. There is a scene in which a senior Senator describes how, as a young Senator, he had “compromised” on the orders of a powerful businessman so that he could “do a thousand other good deeds.” How is Obama or Granholm or our State Reps and Senators or our Attorney General any different? They can rationalize anything and tell you it smells like flowers. Only when you cast off the rose colored glasses of self delusion and critically analyze the actions, as Fieger has done, can you know truth. At least someone is saying it. There is hope, at least in Michigan, and the winds of change are blowing on Mt. Olympus (Michigan Supreme Court). Young is next. Michigan was the leader in the industrial revolution in this country and now Michigan must lead again. Fieger’s fight on Free Speech was the good fight; he should seriously consider running for office again.
I would vote for Feiger!
I would like to know if politicians, even so-called “liberals,” ultimately err on the side of conservatism because they think nobody will vote for them otherwise or because they genuinely ARE more conservative. For example, why don’t ANY Democratic presidential nominees openly say that they support gay marriage? Do they really not support gay marriage or do they know that they’d better not openly support it because they’ll lose votes to the Republican rivals? I wonder how many politicians are actually honest about what they believe in. What if a Democrat with genuinely progressive beliefs was honest? Would s/he really not get elected? Or would people who normally don’t vote because they hate both parties actually vote and get the honest Democrat elected?
Julie