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Kagan's
Obama Problem
by Cenk Uygur
Excerpt:
I have no idea what kind of Justice Elena Kagan
is going to be, and almost no one else does either.
She might be a terrific progressive or she might
move the Court to the right, as some fear.
My problem with her isn't her stated positions,
as she doesn't have very many.
My problem with her is my problem with Obama.
Cheney and Bush moved the ball 80 yards down-field,
whether that was on executive power, warrantless
wiretapping, pre-emptive wars or just about any other issue
you can think of. And Obama's bold and brilliant
response is to move the ball 10 yards in the opposite direction.
Not good enough. Not remotely good enough.
His every action drips of conciliation, compromise,
gradualism and incrementalism. The conservatives take
miles of ideologically territory and convert
it into the status quo. Then Obama brags about converting inches back.
This isn't change we can believe in. This is
pocket change.
So, when conservatives yelled at him about trying
Gitmo detainees in civilian courts, his instinct was to back down.
When they yelled at him for giving detainees
Miranda rights, he is now on the verge of backing down. When they
yelled at him about foreign wars, he escalated
them. When they yelled at him about the $50 billion "bailout" fund
in the financial reform bill, he asked to take
it out. When they yelled at him about offshore oil drilling,
he gave them more. How did that turn out?
Did you know that after Joe Wilson yelled out
"You lie!" on how immigrants would be treated in the healthcare bill,
they quietly gave into him and changed that provision?
Is there anything that this guy can't get bullied on?
Well, of course, there is. Everything from the
left.
Excellent column.
Obama's Number One goal is to get the snarling dogs to like him.
He does this primarily by ignoring the wishes of his base.
It might've been more honest if Obama had run on an "I'll be Bush-lite"
platform.