Reader email (from Larry): Wayne, it is like your man, the Big O, is trying to get me to not vote for him. You see his fucking FISA letter? The arrogance is simply dripping from it. I've already bailed on Pelosi and have my Sheehan bumper stickers and buttons, but I'll be damned if I go over to Nader. I just may end up not voting for Prez come November. Talk some sense into me!Yes...Sen. Obama has moved to the center a bit these past couple of weeks. I'll get to the FISA thing in a minute but let me tackle a few other issues first.
Iraq.
Obama has always said that the United States should be "as careful getting out as we were careless getting in." So his current positioning on Iraq shouldn't surprise anyone.
Like Obama, I (along with Larry) was among the few who were against the invasion of Iraq from the early planning stages. We should have never taken our eye off Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. By moving resources into a country that had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11, 2001 we have allowed the Taliban to restrengthen and pissed off the entire region so thoroughly that America is less safe now than it was when President Bush took office.
That said, while it is essential that we get our troops out of there (for many reasons, not just that we shouldn't have gone in to begin with), withdrawal can not be done in one swift move. Moving American troops out in phases is the only way to keep the region semi-stable. Pull everyone out right now and let the region dissolve into chaos? The world wouldn't stand for it.
Sen. Obama should be taken at his word that he'll remove American troops from Iraq. Whether it's done in 18 months, 24 months, or by the end of his first term as president will be determined in part by his defense secretary and the commanders on the ground. To stick to a fixed timetable regardless of the reality of the situation would make "President Obama" no better than President Bush. America and the world cannot afford another four years of that shit.
Faith-Based Programs.
I must admit, Obama's embrace of such programs caught me off guard. The separation of church and state is quite evident in the Constitution; and with the budget deficit exploding out of control, handing these private religious organizations public money flies in the face of fiscal discipline. This is a major disappointment - made less so by the fact that, unlike Bush's faith-based programs, Obama’s forbids religious charities from using public money to discriminate against new hires based of faith. But if I were a Democrat in Congress and "President Obama" sent this bill to the hill, I would vote against it.
Recent Supreme Court Rulings.
Following recent Supreme Court decisions on the subjects, Sen. Obama came out in support of the death penalty for child rapists and against the gun ban in Washington, D.C. Am I disappointed in his positions here? You bet. Am I surprised? No. Obama discusses his support of the death penalty outside of capital murder cases in his book "The Audacity of Hope." In fact, when the Supreme Court issued their 5-4 ruling against the death penalty in child rape cases I knew Sen. Obama would rail against the decision. By extension, his support of the court's decision in the D.C. gun case (striking down a 30-year old gun ban), while disappointing, didn't surprise.
FISA.
If one issue where Sen. Obama's move to the right these past few weeks has disappointed me most, this is it. The whole issue of wiretaps is a bit haywire to begin with. The telecommunications companies that are being offered immunity from prosecution in order to allow the government to listen in on private phone conversations are probably being unfairly targeted. The fascist government of Bush and Cheney have forced their hand on this issue.
That said, Obama's support of the new bill is misguided. I understand his desire to move to the center in order to gain some support in middle America (he does, after all, want to win this election), but he could have won that support by refusing to back this bill and instead propose one that would have allowed for the FISA courts to issue warrants allowing the tapping of phone lines.
Obama has said he will join Sen. Chris Dodd in an effort to strike the warrantless language from the bill when it arrives in the Senate. It will be interesting to see if he backs the bill should that effort fail.
Warrantless phone tapping flies in the face of the Constitution and under Bush/Cheney has paved the way for presidential abuse of power. Should he continue this warrantless policy once in office, this blog will rail against Mr. Obama as loudly as it has against Mr. Bush.
The Perfect President?
I am not going to agree with a "President Obama" on each and every issue. No American, whether they vote for him in November or not, is going to agree with any president 100% of the time. But with Obama, unlike Bush (and McCain), I trust him to make what he feels is the right decision based on his analysis of each respective situation. Even if I disagree with a specific decision, I will do so respectfully, knowing full well that he has signed a bill or issued an executive order based on an a full understanding of the issue at hand. After eight years of shooting from the hip - and the horrible situation that such governance has left our country - such enlightenment from our chief executive will be a breath of fresh air.
If Larry wants to abstain on the presidential line of his ballot in November, that is his right. But if he's doing so because he expects any candidate to be the perfect president then he's in for a load of disappointment. No president in the history of our great nation has made any citizen happy 100% of the time on every issue.
Case in point - key disappointments of recent Democratic presidents: Roosevelt put Japenese Americans in internment camps; Truman ordered the atomic bomb dropped on Japan; Johnson expanded the Vietnam War and then failed in his exectution of that war; Carter was about as hapless as they come; and Clinton threw his gay and lesbian supporters under the bus.
When you make your decision on Election Day, you weigh the good against the bad, mark your ballot on a wing and a prayer, and hope your candidate, should he or she win, makes you at least half as happy as you hoped.
And I still believe, in my heart of hearts, that America needs Barack Obama.
Now more than ever.
