Here's the short version:

The Owners of The Place hired BO to be their General Manager.

The General Manager does what The Owners tell him to do.

Anyone who is disillusioned is so by choice - that is, they choose not to believe The Place is Corporate Owned+Operated.

Once you accept the truth, however, much, much more will make sense...

Just another filthy list of excuses for the creep. Obama's an Uncle Tom, a betrayer. A dramatic progressive shift in direction from the previous eight years? Lie.

Pres. Obaminable is in fact furthering the policies of his white master Bush. There's absolutely no shift.

"True, he represents a dramatic progressive shift in direction from the previous eight years."

False: he merely made us THINK he did.

We wanted what we thought he was selling, so much so that it blinded us to the poisonous ingredients in his magic potion. But thankfully he has been completely obvious since his election. His brand is now clearly labelled "Snake Oil".

But without a viable alternative, all that rage will go unanswered in 2010, unless enough regular people run for office with no Party affiliation. Everyone is predicting a Republican landslide but that will be NO HELP.

Raise your hand if you are planning to run for office as an independant or support and work for an independant candidate.

This author like many before gets it wrong on Obama's position regarding Iraq. All Obama did was make one tepid "anti-war" speech about Iraq. In that speech he did not speak out against this international war crime but spoke to the fact that it was a "strategic blunder." Obama has always spoke the language of Empire and in fact has praised Bush the Elder for the way he carried out the Operation Desert Storm, essentially praising a war criminal and lauding a grotesque massacre.

At one point in his CCGA oration, Obama had the audacity to say the following in support of his claim that U.S. citizens support “victory” in Iraq: “The American people have been extraordinarily resolved. They have seen their sons and daughters killed or wounded in the streets of Fallujah.”

This was a spine-chilling selection of locales. Fallujah was the site for a colossal U.S. war atrocity.

Then there’s the matter of his actual policy and political record. If Obama was such an “antiwar” candidate, why has he offered so much substantive policy support to the criminal occupation and the broader imperial “war on terror." Here are some highlights from a summary of Obama’s U.S. Senate voting record:

“4/21/05: Obama voted for HR 1268, war appropriations in the amount of approximately $81 billion. Much of this funding went to Blackwater USA and Halliburton and disappeared. Roll call 109 ”

“10/07/05: Obama voted for HR2863, which appropriated $50 billion in new money for war. Roll call 2 .”

“12/21/05: Obama confirmed his support for war by voting for the Conference Report on the Defense Appropriations Act (HR 2863), Roll call 366, which provided more funding to Halliburton and Blackwater. ”

“5/2/06: Obama voted for money for more war by voting for cloture on HR 4939, the emergency funding to Halliburton, Blackwater and other war profiteers. Roll call 103 .”

“5/4/06: Obama, again, voted to adopt HR4939: emergency funding to war profiteers. Roll call 112 .”

“6/13/06: Obama voted to commend the armed services for a bombing that killed innocent people and children and reportedly resulted in the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi… Michael Berg, whose son was reportedly killed by al-Zarqawi, condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the innocent people and children killed in the bombing that Obama commended. Roll call 168 .”

“6/15/06: Obama voted for the conference report on HR4939, a bill that gave warmongers more money to continue the killing and massacre of innocent people in Iraq and allows profiteers to collect more money for scamming the people of New Orleans. Roll Call 171 .”

“6/15/06: Obama, again, opposed withdrawal of the troops, by voting to table a motion to table a proposed amendment would have required the withdrawal of US. Armed Forces from Iraq and would have urged the convening of an Iraq summit (S Amdt 4269 to S. Amdt 4265 to S2766) Roll Call 174 ”

“6/22/06: Obama voted against withdrawing the troops by opposing the Kerry Amendment (S. Amdt 4442 to S 2766) to the National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment, which was rejected, would have brought our troops home. Roll Call 181 ”

“6/22/06: Obama voted for cloture (the last effective chance to stop) on the National Defense Authorization Act (S 2766), which provided massive amounts of funding to defense contractors to continue the killing in Iraq. Roll Call 183.”

“6/22/06: Obama again voted for continued war by voting to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (S 2766) for continued war funding. Roll Call 186 .

9/7/06: Obama voted to give more money to profiteers for more war (H..R. 5631). Roll Call 239 ”

“9/29/06: Obama voted vote for the conference report on more funding for war, HR 5631. Roll Call 261 .”

“12/06/06: Obama voted to confirm pro-war Robert M. Gates to be Secretary of Defense. Gates is a supporter of Bush's policies of pre-emptive war and conquest of foreign countries. Roll Call 272 ”

“Obama's voting record in 2007 establishes that he continues to be pro-war. On March 28, 2007 and March 29th, 2007, he voted for cloture and passage of a bill designed to give Bush over $120 billion to continue the occupation for years to come (with a suspendable time table) and inclusive of funding that could be used to launch a war with Iran. Roll calls 117 and 126 ...Obama's record shows a minimum of 20 major pro-war votes…”

That's just a small portion of Obama's pro-war record.

"I believe that U.S. forces are still a part of the solution in Iraq.”
- Barack Obama

"A full year after he took office, people have not found a sensible way to talk about him."

This analysis is even worse than Younge's article published here yesterday.

Ironically, the "people" who have the most trouble finding a sensible way to talk about Obama are the Serious pundits so often published right here on Common Dreams.

· Yr Obd't Servant

definition of;
- profiteer
- shareholder
- worker

there will be a national quiz at noon. a passing grade will lead to reform.

pumpkin pi

obama is a neo-tom, the amiable manager of a plantation full of rotten cotton.

I'd say the author needs a little dis-illusioning.

More Church of the Savvy nonsense.

First, Obama made some promises and we just weren't savvy enough, I guess, to dismiss them.

He promised that his justice department would investigate to see if the previous administration had committed crimes if there was any evidence pointing towards that and then would follow the investigation where it led. Broken.

He promised that he would renegotiate NAFTA (as did Hillary). Broken.

He promised that he would reform Health Care by having a robust, public option. Broken.

He promised that all views would be on the table for health care reform. Broken.

He promised that all negotiations for health care would be open and transparent, even broadcast on C-SPAN. Broken.

He promised that he would not raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. Broken.

Then there is the nonsense about it all being the Left's fault because we haven't worked hard enough like those Tea Partiers. Well I went to a town meeting. There were more Left Wingers there than Tea Partiers. We have marched. We have called. We have written letters. We have blogged. We have sent in money. What has happened? The Corporate Media ignores us and the White House tells us to shut up, that we need to get dressed and grow up.

Then there is the contention that Obama HAS to be a appeaser to the Right because he "only won by 6 percent." Excuse me? Bush lost in 2000 and did not have a 60 votes Senate and yet he didn't appease the Left.

Finally there is the lie that Obama has no choice because it takes 60 votes to get things done in the Senate. Ummm, where is that in the Constitution? This is simply a rule about how long debate should go on, it's a recent rule, and it was not SOP until the Democrats took the majority in '06. But then the GOP decided to make it SOP and the corporate media and the Democrats went along with the stripping away of democracy.

Finally, Mr. Younge, if you think the real problem is the Left not being vocal enough this last year, then why are you writing an article that's basically telling us to stop being so vocal? ??!!????

Folks who wept when a man half-black was elected have every right to weep again when only the white half took office.

Younge has trouble finding a way to talk about 0 himself: "middle of the road"? Middle of what road? Where are we when someone can escalate open wars in two countries and violent involvements in a half a dozen others and still be called "middle of the road".

Is it middle of the road when bin Ladin does it (albeit considerably less)?
If the Taliban bomb someone, is that also moderate?

0bama has raised military spending from the Cheney-Bush years. If he's middle of the road, does that make Darth leftist?

..

Like a lot of writing on this point, Younge makes some good points but falls way short of the mark. A lot of us who had no impression whatsoever that 0bama was liberal, who did not have the illusion Younge seems to have guarded that 0bama is some sort of centrist, wept for the gesture of an American electorate electing an African American to the presidency.

I have no shame for that and no shame for being disappointed that the 0bama and his greedful managers have become so intent on plucking the turkey they have slain so as to forget to toss the traditional bone to the dog that brought it in.

It does not make it less disappointing to imagine this as part of response to some sort of endgame condition, not any lack of astuteness on the part of 0bama's spinmeisters.

let's cut to the chase on health insurers and banks...

consolidation... in the last 30 years... and the exponentially more so in the past 10... have led to each of these "sectors of the economy" replacing "real" physical sectors of the economy...

anti trust legislation on the books has been gathering dust for the last 30 years...

while workers have actively been under siege... unions... offshoring ("free" trade)....

obama DID deliver a central promise... he DID elaborate over and over... he doesn't do gutter politics... unfortunately... everyone else still does...

like john edwards' said over and over... you don't invite the sharks to the table for dinner... for anything else you might want to say about john edwards (or eliot spitzer)... they knew how to play hardball... and they knew where to hit...

Arguably, the sort of health care reform bill that might pass would be worse than no bill. Trillions mandated to private insurance companies, with severe penalties for those who don't hand their dollars over to these companies. Isn't this equivalent to private investors buying the right to impose mandatory tax payments on citizens. Some say this is like mandating car insurance, but is it? Car insurance is for driving a car, but health insurance is for what exactly? For existing, apparently. We should call it an existence tax that goes not to the state but to private insurance companies, their executives, and investors. Folks, this isn't socialism, its state capitalism, often known as facism. Thanks, Obama.

Too late! Barack's already Obamasculated himself!! And Pullosi Punch and Judy Reid have Beat DEMselves up and cut him off at the BILL$!!!

After a year of his presidency, I'm still torn about the man. I think he has done a better job of being president than McCain would have done; but at this point I see that's what some would call 'damning with very faint praise.' I do see why people in the states don't like the guy very much anymore...

I still think he's better than the alternative would have been. I can't see how anyone would expect someone else to have done a better job - poor as the job has been done. The usa is in a disastrous position, the economy is in very poor shape, the national debt and the amount of money owed in unfunded debt is beyond any ability to repay without massive tax hikes and huge cuts to the pentagon. The wars of choice you're fighting are not ever going to achieve what either bush or obama claim that they were for. Indeed they never were about what the politicians have publicly said they were about in the first place.

Perhaps it might have been better for McCain to have won the last election. (don't bother to tell me that it was possible that someone else might have won) Had he done so the economic collapse of the usa would have come about by now as it's not likely that the nations which buy your debt would have continued to do so with such a man as your president.

Obama betrayed progressives. He never allowed an honest study of how much medicare for all would save us compared to the present system. France covers everyone, ranks number one in healthcare outcomes, and it costs them only half as much per person. Judging by the example of France and a score of other countries, the US would save a trillion dollars and could have much better medical care outcomes with a medicare for all system. But instead there was refusal to allow medicare for all/single payer to even be investigated.

Obama gave unlimited money to banks and refused to stop or recover bonuses to executives of bailed out banks. 100 times more money was used to bail out banks compared to money given to companies that make real products. No big bank was allowed to fail (that would destroy executive contracts), but GM was put in bankruptsy specifically to destroy union contracts and retired worker contracts. And Chrysler was just "given" away to a foreign firm.

For me the first year comes down to intentions. An intention is an unfulfilled part of a plan. As the previous comments point out, President Obama has not kept many of his campaign promises, some of which were mildly progressive. But did he fight for his semi-progressive promises, like a robust public option, for example? No. He fights for nothing. He advocates strongly for little. His plans for success, therefore, his intentions, are to *look* successful by passing things that seem helpful.

If he earnestly attempted to pass the range of promises itemized in the article and expanded in the comments here, but failed; if he used executive orders to implement other promises (getting rid of "Don't ask—Don't Tell" but got reversed; if he TRIED—then I'd feel more satisfied with him. He didn't. I'm not.

His plan is not to move the nation towards a new progressive era, but instead, is to bolster the corporate regime by rebranding it with a smiling face and inspiring words—words of deception.

Obama's supposed progressivism: "thwarted by institutional stasis and ideological sclerosis." Them are some big words, pardner, but what about "thwarted by Obama's enslavement to the corporate powers-that-be?"

thanks mcoyote for pointing the obvious

It's this simple:

Obama isn't a person or politician. He's a brand.

Think of him like Coke or Nike, GM or Ford. He's McDonalds or Burger King.

You were sold a bill of goods, a commercial, what they call 'shit in a can' on Madison Avenue.

You were handed a dream by the MSM after eight years of a national nightmare called the Bush Administration. You were bombarded with 'Hope(tm)' and 'Change You Can Believe In(tm)'. These were slogans, carefully vetted and tested demographically to make you think, once again, you had a choice. You didn't and you don't.

But it turns out Obama is not a dream. He's more a like a bad case of delirium tremens, or a junkie coming down off a bad trip.

Always bear in mind that same people and Corporations who made eight years of hell under Bush possible brought you Obama. They are still the ones who won't allow inspection and independent testing of the so-called 'black box' voting machines. It was recently revealed that Obama received $20 million from the very health care companies his 'reforms' sought to curtail. What you got was mandatory insurance under pain of going to jail.

If you actually thought Obama was going to bring change to Washington, you are already hip deep in the meds the Pharma Cons are selling...

Yes, the president works for the corporate plutocracy.

And there was the hope - in everyone, admit it - that in the face of global climate change and global resource depletion (oil, water, arable land, etc.) that the election of Obama represented a shift in the elites worldview and that maybe, just maybe, they would do the right thing, and start moving this country toward sanity after The Reign of the Psychopaths (Cheney-Bush).

I know, I know, someone here is not only going to counter that not only did he or she NOT hope for something so implausible, but moreover, is going to laugh in my face for ever hoping for such a thing and believing it possible.

In my defense, let me say that I only half believed it. But the reason I did is because time is short for averting a global catastrophe that will surely result from the convergence of multiple trends in the near future.

I suggested in a previous post the other day that the elites who refuse to serve humanity at this juncture in history are traitors to humanity. "The elites are traitors to humanity." Replicate the meme.

"Obama opposed the Iraq War." False.

"There was little to chose [sic] between him and Hillary Clinton in terms of their programmes." False.

"[Obama] won on a decidedly middle-of-the-road Democratic platform." False. (Unless preemptive war and free-market fundamentalism is now considered "middle-of the-road Democratic.")

"Obama's campaign ... was a grassroots campaign." If Wall Street banks and multi-national corporations are "grassroots."

"The healthcare reform debate might have panned out differently had [Obama] led more decisively." False. Obama is getting exactly what he wanted: no single-payer, no public option, no medicare expansion, no cost controls, and mandatory insurance purchases from private companies.

The general theme here is that Obama is a "timid" progressive up against the realities of what is "legislatively possible." Bullshit! He's a hard-nosed, deal-making Chicago pol with a hard-right, corporate-Democrat agenda and a smooth line of bullshit for the masses.

They're still trying to feed us the same old shit, folks. Spit the hook!

One might hope that Obama would give pause to adopting the policy of enabling virtually unbounded corporate predations when he considers the coming judgment of future generations. But Obama recognizes that the victors write the history and he expects the victors to be the elites of the corporatocracy. He apparently believes that the vanquished little people, all their trials and tribulations, their personal stories, and all the suffering and injustices they endure, will be little remembered.

This a gag article right? He cannot be serious here.

Yet he was right here:

>>First, Obama was never a radical. He won on a decidedly middle-of-the-road Democratic platform. Beyond the Iraq war, which he opposed and she supported, there was little to chose between him and Hillary Clinton in terms of their programmes. They had voted the same way in the Senate 90% of the time.

True, he represents a dramatic progressive shift in direction from the previous eight years. But in almost any other western country his policies on the Middle East, gay marriage, trade and capital punishment would cast him out of polite leftwing company. Yes, there are grounds for disappointment. Bush's torture infrastructure has been left largely intact, the Iraq withdrawal has been extended by two years and the healthcare reform debate might have panned out differently had he led more decisively. But there is a world between that and accusations of betrayal and treachery. In Afghanistan in particular, the problem was that he kept his campaign pledge whereas many of us wish that he had broken it.<<

Exactly.

We did not pay attention to what Obama was really saying when we voted for him, those of us that did buy into the Change theme. He didn't really lie exactly. He just inferred he was progressive at heart.

Yet ignored here is his actual lies. On supporting the Iraq War as one poster showed. In his healthcare plan. Gitmo. Torture. Etc.

But I still think this piece is a joke. A bad one.

Gary

For all his idealism (and his eyes blaze brightest as he demands WE be "...willing to fight for it"), and in order to move the struggle forward, Obama made deals and did sign up to head one of the most predatory machines in history. No one can get near the levers of power any other way. He is now constricted by the deadly rules of that game. His handlers, like all presidents', have other plans. Ask JFK. He tried to expose the Fed. He died.

Something strong and joyous moved deeply in the heart of the country and the world as We the People got off our cynicism long enough to demonstrate that we will rise to the occasion, to establish our will. Will we now stand up still to do what Obama can't possibly by himself? ...what he never planned to do, but we must? Or will we sink back obediently into cynicism?

I have not the slightest desire to understand "why Obama won" or "why McCain lost". Articles such as this distract from the fundamental issue: "why does our system of governance produce the Obama's and McCain's" over-and-over again? On the basis of its headline alone this article deserves to be thrown into the waste basket even before it is read.

Gary Younge needs to get his face out of Obama's ass, and we all know why it's there too.

Some people can't look past their own pigment and/or party affiliation. I guess white Republicans don't have a monopoly on that.

I never had any illusions about Obama and knew what he stood for all along. That's why I voted for Nader. Nonetheless, I'm still angry. You're asleep if you're not.

Oooh, I can't wait for another Younge article about lower-income white folks and why they are supposedly so fucked up.

Maybe it's that I'm not an upper-class liberal?

Let's all swing 'n' sway like we're in church! He made history! Glory be to...the powers-that-be?

I think the belly-aching about Obama is excessive. He was elected by American voters, who by and large are ill-informed, prejudiced, greedy, and gullible. Otherwise, America might have nominated and elected Kucinich or Nader. Isn't that pretty basic?

Obama actually raised a lot of non-corporate money, but the congress is a different story, and he can't get stuff done without congress. I didn't expect much out of Obama. He sounded like the Clintons, or John Kerry, or Al Gore. He wasn't Reagan or Bush. That was good enough for me. That he was at least partially non-white was a bonus. That has opened the door to a segment of the population heretofore excluded in the U.S. from highest office, a segment that includes some truly progressive people. As Younge says, M.L. King wouldn't have been elected to high office. Another King, in Obama's wake, might have a chance.

The MSM, especially Saturday Night Live, has made it clear that Obama has so far failed miserably on most of his pledges. But he's reversed at least some of the damage Bush caused to our international reputation. That's a big deal, although it might not last if he continues to maintain Bush policies that fuel terrorism. He has earned the scorn of Dick Cheney. That's a plus.

If those of us who see conservatives as a real threat to the country keep plugging on important things like ending the wars on Muslims and working for universal health care, we might eventually make some progress. In 2009 and early this year, for the first time in memory, the congress actually considered a single-payer health care system, and actually noticed that not having such a system costs us annually, in premature deaths, about fifteen times the total number who died prematurely as a result of 9/11. Those things aren't going to be forgotten, even after the Republicans regain control.

Obama does not need the benefit of our doubt. He is the president of the most powerful country on the planet.

We are no longer the most powerful nation on this benighted planet, unless your definition simply relies on the fact that we have the world's largest arsenal of thermonuclear weapons. We are burning swiftly to the ground and there isn't a bucket brigade or even a thimble brigade to fight the fire.

Obama got elected because there were only two choices presented to the public. Obama was younger, better looking, was a superior orator, had star power behind him, fatter coffers, was a Democract, and made people feel as if they'd help make history by electing him.

Many people voted for Obama simply because he is black, just like many voted for McCain because he's a white man.

Who would you have voted for had you only known about Obama and McCain and not McKinney and Nader?

What if you knew about 3rd party candidates but didn't think any of them had a chance?

Obama won because voters are, to be kind, not too bright.
He was up against McCain, the economy was in the dumps, 8 years of Republican rule was a disaster, the Dems could have run Castro out there and won, who cares that he was not a citizen (not saying he is not), he said the magic words, Hope & Change, the kids cheered and said Yay, and McCain didn't even appeal to his own party.

Elections in this country are a sham. Look at our past Presidents of the last 30 years

....the peanut farmer from Atlanta who was one of the first members of the TLC, who threw Taiwan under the bus, and a good friend of Newt Gingrich, whose techtronic NSA and TLC co-founder Brzezinski (Obamas adviser)trained up extremists in Afghanistan and lost Iran to the Ayatollahs, setting up a 444 day hostage crisis. Oh, and he also gave us FEMA, stagflation and set the foundations for the S&L crisis with banking reforms engineered by his Fed Chairman Volcker, who also allowed the Fed to monetize 3rd world debt bailing out the banks and gutted states anti-usury laws.

....then on to the movie actor with Alzheimers, who gave us Iran Contra and started to run up the debt as he hit the 1 trillion mark for the first time, with his VP a former UN Ambassador and defacto Ambassador to China whose father was a NY banker whose bank was closed down in WW II due to it's Nazi connections, before becoming the big man himself and doing squat over Tiananmen, and giving us the first war in Iraq while using the phrase New World Order in a speech delivered September 11, 1990.

.....then the Marxist from Arkansas who gave us WTO-another gift to China and our own multinational cartels, and the NATO led war in Yugoslavia, not to mention NAFTA and the repeal of Glass Steagall and the Dot.com bust up due to the policies of his Fed Chairman, Sir Bubbles Greenspan(he got knighted by the Queen). The repeal of Glass Steagall set the stage for the financial crisis in the Bush years.

....followed by the failed businessman and AL Texas Ranger owner and son of an ex-President, who may have went AWOL in the Guard, and had his guys say to China "Very Sorry for you guys having to hold our plane and crew hostage after knocking it down with your suicidal pilot". Not to mention dropping the ball on 9/11, despite the USS Cole attack 1 month before the election under lame duck Clinton, and all kinds of signals another attack was coming, he puts Dick Clarke in a closet. He did nothing to stop the sub-prime crisis, Sir Bubbles said sub-primes were good, the financial models agreed, and then he hired as Sec Treasury a guy whose former company profited from the sub-prime crisis, their models said they were bad, under his watch. Meanwhile, his new Fed Chairman, helicopter Bernie, appointed after Sir Bubbles jumped ship, triggered the crisis with interest rate increases to combat inflation due to oil inflation (and not affected by interest rates), whose price eventually hit 150 dollars a barrel and was due entirely due to speculation and price fixing of the oil cartels. Did I mention the Iraq war to get Saddam, although Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 or Anthrax and had no WMD, followed by the occupation that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of Iraq and god knows how many dead. In defense of the people, I am not sure we voted for him in 2000 or 2004 (my secret shame is I did in 2000). Bananna republics do a better job with elections.

...and now a guy that has done nothing much but write an Autobiography at age 30, and began writing his campaign book in his first year as Senator, but has roots with a former British colony, a country in Asia, and who never lived on the continental US until he was an adult, but has committed 100 billion to helping poorer nations combat Global Warming, hundreds of billions more to the banksters, and made criminals of those who choose not to buy, or can not afford insurance from monopolist insurance companies, who are exempt from anti-trust regulations and fix prices.

I mean, if this was a movie nobody would believe it.

If the Left keeps making out the average American to be a moron, they'll never engage them. Snobby intellectuals are the Right's friends. They send confused Americans their way by shaming people.

My frontal lobe's bigger than yours.

watch entourage episode