Obama's candidacy is losing its luster

Barack Obama's disappointing slide toward the center doesn't translate into a vote for John McCain.  Not by any means.  But it does make Ralph Nader look like a more attractive option, especially here in Oregon where Obama, in my opinion, is a sure-fire winner.

The latest blow to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is Obama's support of the new FISA bill.  Obama's acolytes may try to explain away his apparent "capitulation" (in the words of Sen. Russ Feingold) to Bush and the Republicans as a crafty political move. (View his statement here.)  But others will view it for what it is --another unprincipled betrayal of American civil liberties, and a sop to the incipient Bush police state.

But even more troublesome is Obama's support of the conservative Georgia Democratic Representative John Barrow --a true Blue Dog Dem and unapologetic Bush supporter in the war on terror--  against the challenge of the progressive (and black) state Senator Regina Thomas who, unlike Barrow, opposes the new FISA bill.  According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,  Obama recorded this plea to Georgia voters for Barrow's re-election:

"In the ad, Obama asks voters to join him in supporting Barrow. ' We’re going to need John Barrow back in Congress to help change Washington and get our country back on track,' Obama says in the 60-second ad."

It's hard to fathom how returning Barrow to Congress will "change" Washington.  In fact, Obama's backing of Barrow is reminiscent of his support for Joe Lieberman in 2006.  Hopefully it hasn't escaped Obama's notice that Lieberman is now on the campaign trail with John McCain doing his best to see that Obama doesn't become our next President.

In the wake of his statement to AIPAC of unconditional support for Israel, a stance which could derail the Palestinian peace negotiations (on Israel Obama runs to the right of Condoleeza Rice), Obama's latest maneuvers reveal him as less a candidate of change than as a purveyor of Democratic politics as usual.  A vote for Obama, it's beginning to seem, is a vote for more of the same.

UPDATE:  Apparently I'm not the only one disillusioned with Obama.

Comments

[Daniel K]

Let me get this straight: a candidate who cannot win is "a more attractive options"?

People need to get a grip. Obama will never be as perfect as people want their President to be. He's going to disappoint often - to think otherwise is to live in fantasyland.

But he's going to also remind us more often why it is we elected him in the first place.

There are no circumstances that make Nadar a more attractive option. Zip, zero, zilch.

[Steve R.]

I must admit he never really had much luster in my eyes, save for the intangible (but very important) benefit to the self-esteem young African American men.

You in particular, Terry, will be interested to know that he's appointed a U of Chicago boy to head his economic policy. Naomi Klein covers it in detail in the June 30 Nation.

Of course, we already knew he was a bought and paid for by Wall Street, just like Clinton. Neoliberalism lives on, and the income gap will continue to widen.

[Craig]

Once upon a time, there was a presidential candidate who said he would reach across the aisle and work with conservatives, liberals, progressives, and, horror of horrors, even blue dog Democrats. Then, when he does just that, you are shocked.

Welcome to the real world -- the world as it is, rather than the way you would ideally like to see it.

[Terry]

Int real world of politics, I see absolutely no justification for supporting a Blue Dog Democrat over a more progressive black female candidate in a district that is 70% African American.

That's not only cynical; it's stupid. How does it benefit the Democratic majority to elect other Democrats who on many crucial issues are little more than closet Republicans?

[Craig]

Earth to real world redux:

In primaries, candidates cater to their core constituencies, which, in Obama's case, is the left. Once nominated they run to the center. How shocking that Obama is doing what every other candidate -- both Republican and Democrat -- has always done.

Regarding Nader, Ralph rails against "corporate America," but most of his modest wealth (about $4 million) has come through investments in the stock market. Tech stocks. Ironically, he never uses a computer, which means he will never read this blog.

[RichW]

A vote for Nader in Oregon is an irrelevant vote. So cast it as such if it makes you feel good.

Obama has enough moderates here to carry the state.

[Harry Kershner]

Craig said, "In primaries, candidates cater to their core constituencies, which, in Obama's case, is the left. Once nominated they run to the center."

There was no support for Obama from "the left". Obama should have been seen for what he really is (a corporatist and a hegemonist) by anybody to the left of Joe Liberman (Obama's mentor, according to Obama) far before the primary ended. He never has taken a principled position on the occupation of Iraq, and he has been on the wrong side of the center on all the issues about which I feel most strongly (Issues that Matter for 2008)

Furthermore, Obama has not "run to the center" in the general election, he has run to the right. Anyone who sees Obama as a "centrist" is either verbally challenged or is so far to the right herself that Mussolini would seem like a "centrist".

A centrist is someone who represents the desires of the majority or at least a plurality. Neither McCain nor Obama are centrists.

"Centrist" does not refer to those who threaten to obliterate Iran or to continue to occupy Iraq, even if they say it will be for less than a hundred years. It does not refer to those who oppose single-payer, universal healthcare. It does not refer to those who restrain efforts to decrease corporate power and welfare; nor to those who promise to increase the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget.

When I met Ralph Nader in Portland last month, he was talking about "spineless Democrats". I asked him, "Aren't they not spineless, but rather complicit?"

His answer: "Pick your poison."