underXposed

Honestly, I was dumbfounded that Barak Obama was allowed to get this far in the American electoral machine process. After all, everyone knows that America is defined by its racism. So why would the rabid racists in power for over 200 years, the same who allowed the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to continue, allow him his say and to become a presumptive candidate for the presidency? Unlike McCain and Clinton who are clearly part of the neocon bushcorp, Obama is intelligent enough to cloak sinister intentions, and frankly, I think we need to seriously question what’s behind the charismatic mask.

I found the following alphabetical, quick and dirty checklist from The Progressive Review (taken from Obama’s actual records) offer a mixed-bag answer, and I think its veracity will leak out as we head toward November.

ANTI-TRUST

Obama said he would pursue a vigorous antitrust policy and singled out the media industry as one area where government regulators would need to be watchful as consolidation increases. . . We’re going to have an antitrust division in the Justice Department that actually believes in antitrust law. We haven’t had that for the last seven, eight years,” Obama said. – Reuters

ARROGANCE

Four years ago, Obama was an obscure state senator representing part of one of America’s most corrupt and machine-run cities. He is now running as God’s gift to America and clean government based on this past, plus what he would like to have been a temp job in the U. S. Senate.

BUSH REGIME

• Has not dealt with the criminality of Bush’s use of torture.
• Aggressively opposed impeachment action against Bush

BUSINESS INTERESTS

• Has offered few good ideas about how to handle the current economic crisis.
• Cass Sunstein, a constitutional advisor to Obama, told Jeffrey Rosen of the NY Times: “I would be stunned to find an anti-business [Supreme Court] appointee from either [Clinton or Obama].
• There’s not a strong interest on the part of Obama or Clinton in demonizing business, and you wouldn’t expect to see that in their Supreme Court nominees.”
• Wrote that conservatives and Bill Clinton were right to destroy social welfare,
• Supported making it harder to file class action suits in state courts
• Voted for a business-friendly “tort reform” bill
• Voted against a 30% interest rate cap on credit cards
• Had the most number of foreign lobbyist contributors in the primaries
• Is even more popular with Pentagon contractors than McCain
• Was most popular of the candidates with K Street lobbyists
• Voted against a 30% interest rate cap on credit cards
• In 2003, rightwing Democratic Leadership Council named Obama as one of its “100 to Watch.”
• After he was criticized in the black media, Obama disassociated himself with the DLC. But his major economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, is also chief economist of the conservative organization. Writes Doug Henwood, “Goolsbee has written gushingly about Milton Friedman and denounced the idea of a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures.”
• Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer: “Top hedge fund honcho Paul Tudor Jones threw a fundraiser for him at his Greenwich house last spring, ‘The whole of Greenwich is backing Obama,’ one source said of the posh headquarters of the hedge fund industry. They like him because they’re socially liberal, up to a point, and probably eager for a little less war, and think he’s the man to do their work. They’re also confident he wouldn’t undertake any renovations to the distribution of wealth.”

CITIES

Has no meaningful urban policy

CIVIL LIBERTIES

• In first 100 days would review all Bush executive orders
• Supports the war on drugs
• Supports the crack-cocaine sentence disparity
• Supports Real ID
• Voted against immunity for telecoms’ illegal spying on Americans
• Supports the PATRIOT Act
• Supports the death penalty
• Opposes lowering the drinking age to 18
• Helped fight for restoration of habeas corpus at Gitmo.
• Refused to take a position on the anti-constitutional Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

COMPETITION

• Obama would almost certainly be a better president than either Bush or his preferred heir apparent, John McCain.
• He would also likely be a better president than Bill Clinton. The reasons for this are several. He is vastly more honest. This doesn’t mean he is without guile – far from it – but it is, for him, apparently a fallback position rather than, as with Clinton, the first thing you exercise upon arising. Further, even though he comes from Chicago, the worst anyone has been able to hang on him is Tony Rezko. Obama has not been impeached, the governmental equivalent to a criminal indictment. And he has not proclaimed a deep concern for minorities and working class whites while simultaneously screwing them. Finally, Obama would probably bring to an end the 28 year Reagan – Bush – Clinton – Bush era that has been disastrous to America.

CONSERVATIVES

• Went to Connecticut to support Joe Lieberman in the primary against Ned Lamont
• Paul Street, Z Mag – Obama has lent his support to the aptly named Hamilton Project, formed by corporate-neoliberal Citigroup chair Robert Rubin and other Wall Street Democrats to counter populist rebellion against corporatist tendencies within the Democratic Party. . . Obama was recently hailed as a Hamiltonian believer in limited government and free trade by Republican New York Times columnist David Brooks, who praises Obama for having “a mentality formed by globalization, not the SDS.” . . .
• Times, UK – Obama is hoping to appoint cross-party figures to his cabinet such as Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator for Nebraska and an opponent of the Iraq war, and Richard Lugar, leader of the Republicans on the Senate foreign relations committee. Senior advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate, was considered an ideal candidate for defence secretary.
• Richard Lugar was rated 0% by SANE. . . rated 0% by AFL-CIO. . . rated 0% BY NARAL. . . . rated 12% by American Public Health Association. . . rated 0% by Alliance for Retired Americans. . . rated 27% by the National Education Association. . . rated 5% by League of Conservation Voters. . . He voted no on implementing the 9/11 Commission report. . . Vote against providing habeas corpus for Gitmo prisoners. . .voted no on comprehensive test ban treaty. . .voted against same sex marriage. . . strongly anti-abortion. . . opposed to more federal funding for healthcare. . .voted for unconstitutional wiretapping. . .voted to increase penalties for drug violations
• Chuck Hagel was rated 0% by NARAL. . . rated 11% by NAACP. . . rated 0% by Human Rights Coalition. . . rated 100% by Christian Coalition. . . rated 12% by American Public Health Association. . . rated 22% by Alliance for Retired Americans. . . rated 36% by the National Education Association. . . rated 0% by League of Conservation Voters. . . rated 8% by AFL-CIO. . . He is strongly anti-abortion. . .voted for anti-flag desecration amendment. . .voted to increase penalties for drug violations. . . favors privatizing Social Security

COURTS

• Obama spoke admiringly of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the former California governor who led the court in the 1950s and ’60s, when it struck down racial segregation and championed the cause of civil rights.
• Obama has also praised current Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter. “I want people on the bench who have enough empathy, enough feeling, for what ordinary people are going through,” Obama said.- NYT

CUBA

In 2004 Obama favored ending the Cuban embargo. He now says he won’t end it. He would, however, immediately allow “unlimited family travel and remittances to the island.”

DRUGS

• Supports failed war on drugs
• Would curb federal enforcement on state medical marijuana suppliers.
• Endorsed US involvement in the failed drug war in Colombia: “When I am President, we will continue the Andean Counter-Drug Program, and update it to meet evolving challenges.”

ECOLOGY

• Voted for a nuclear energy bill that included money for bunker buster bombs and full funding for Yucca Mountain.
• Comes in at 48th in the ranking of senators by the League of Conservation Voters
• Won’t oppose nuclear power
• Supports federally funded ethanol

ELECTORAL REFORM

Obama supports instant runoff voting.

FOREIGN POLICY

• Has no clear plan to leave Iraq and Afghanistan.
• His top Iraq advisor wrote that America should keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010. Obama, in his appearances, blurs the difference between combat soldiers and other troops and has given no indication that he would reduce the massive mercenary force in Iraq.
• Has hawkish foreign policy advisors involved in past US misdeeds and failures
• Would probably be good at international negotiations.
• Would improve America’s image abroad, at least until he did something stupid.
• Supports Israeli aggression and apartheid. Obama has deserted previous support for two-state solution to Mid East situation. Refuses to negotiate with Hamas.
• Has voted numerous times to continue funding the war
• Favored cluster bomb ban in civilian areas
• Promises not to sign a trade bill without environmental and labor protections.
• Won’t rule out first strike nuclear attack on Iran
• Called Pakistan “the right battlefield … in the war on terrorism.” Threatened to invade Pakistan
• AP – He would return the country to the more “traditional” foreign policy efforts of past presidents, such as George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. At a town hall event at a local high school gymnasium, Obama praised George H.W. Bush – father of the president – for the way he handled the Persian Gulf War: with a large coalition and carefully defined objectives. . . “The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan, and it is George Bush that’s been naive and it’s people like John McCain and, unfortunately, some Democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world,” he said.

HONESTY & CONSISTENCY

• Obama does mislead, and not unintentionally it would seem. For example, Obama repeatedly uses the politician’s trick of providing descriptions of a problem as a substitute for a prescription. This allows him to delude voters into thinking he has sympathy with them without the need to offer solutions.
• Has deceived the voters by not telling them that he would keep American troops in Iraq and he a tendency to shift on a number of issues, such as NAFTA and policy towards Iran, depending on the media tenor of the moment.
• Misled on extent on lobbyist support
• Wrote in his own book, “I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”

JUST WORDS

Obama’s use of southern pulpit cadence and inflection gives him an unfounded reputation for eloquence. His actual words are often corny and trite. He relies on cliches such as hope and change that have far more common with ad agencies than with philosopher kings. He also loses his command of metaphor and meaning when he is removed from a teleprompter and asked some questions, a weakness reflected in his antipathy towards news conferences.

LOBBYING

Obama’s top aide, David Axelrod works for a PR firm serving major corporate interests

MINORITIES

• Like Hillary Clinton, Obama has built his campaign around genetic identity rather than on political principles and issues.
• Wouldn’t have photo taken with San Francisco mayor because he was afraid it would seem that he supported gay marriage

NEW IDEAS

Has produced no interesting new ideas nor promised to fight for any important new programs

PROGRESSIVES

• Dissed Nader for daring to run for president again
• Called the late Paul Wellstone “something of a gadfly”
• Progressive Punch ranks Obama 24th in the Senate.

PROSPECTS

At worst, Obama will be one more fox placed in the chicken coop of democracy by the corporations and their outsourced workers in the media and politics. At best, he will rebel against his upbringing and offer America something new and better. Most likely, however, is that he will serve as a deeply frustrating transition between what should never have happened and what needs to be done – stabilizing our national dysfunctions as they continue to await proper and necessary treatment.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

• Supports No Child Left Behind
• Supports charter schools

RELIGION

• Has run his campaign as though leading a cult rather than a political movement.
• Has indicated a willingness to name rightwing Christians to his cabinet.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Said “everything is on the table” with Social Security early in campaign. In May 2008 he indicated opposition to privatizing Social Security, raising the minumum age, or reduce cost of living increases.

DEMOCRACY

Has inspired a lot of young and minority voters to get involved in politics

HEALTH

• Opposes single payer healthcare
• Supported restricting damage awards in medical malpractices suits
• Favors healthcare individual mandates that would help insurance companies and banks but not citizens
• Received $708,000 from medical and insurance interests between 2001 and 2006

Of course, Bobby Kennedy was pro-war in the Viet Nam years, until public outrage brought him to his senses…

Bottom line: My abiding question doesn’t seem to have an answer: When are we ever going to let go of our selfish mean-ness, regardless of our income level, race, gender, or age?