obama

Watched Barack Obama's official announcement this morning. He invoked Lincoln... as any gangling man in Springfield, Illinois would definitely opt to do. Sitting here wishing I could be as tickled about it as I would have been two years ago. His Audacity of Hope speech at the 2004 convention was outright thrilling. The camera swung around to catch Hillary's glee immediately turn into that unmistakeable expression of calculation, and I knew the DLC would work this man for everything he was worth from that moment on. They did not disappoint. They have sent Obama in to bolster the ratings of every single candidate they perceive to be vital and he has dutifully performed like a rock star being morphed into a circus seal ever since delivering that riveting keynote address.

People are wondering what happened to his assurances that he would serve out his term as Senator from Illinois, that he was not ready to reach for the presidency. It can't be any wonder, sez me, that the man would be very tired of squandering his charisma and political capital on every Tom, Dick and Sally who wants to get our votes. He should be using it on his own career before the vampires have sucked him so dry he might need a fresh face to stump for him to keep his Senate seat.

The night after it became clear the Republicans were going to ram through the Military Commissions Act, the legalization of torture and the death of habeas corpus, he was making twinkly at the West Virginia Jefferson Jackson dinner in support of the old and thoroughly useless Senator Byrd -- and not one word about the travesty in progress issued from his silver tongue. He joined Biden in denigrating the drive for a filibuster of the Alito nomination. After thousands and thousands of us who had been filibustering for that filibuster hollered bloody murder, went so far as to join Biden again to say he would go along with it for one round, since we were so adamant, but not press further than that. Obama has been expressly interested in making sure the weapons of mass destruction lying around the face of the earth are not unattended, that they are secure, and I think we can be happy for his efforts, but where has he been on bringing us back into line with the Nonproliferation Treaty? We have broken that treaty eighteen ways to Sunday, and where is Obama, where are ANY of our elected officials on THAT? Plus, doesn't it seem to you that any Democratic Senator who runs for the presidency while the majority is this horrifically slim is, in an all too real sense, a traitor, playing fast and loose with the future of our country, and the whole world, for personal advancement?

Still, he has not rushed off to assure Israel and American Zionists that he would nuke Iran and help them keep oppressing Palestinians if elected, and that makes him a better candidate for the job by many orders of magnitude than Clinton and Edwards. We could also hope that this run is Obama throwing off the shackles on his popularity by jaded old politicos to express a truly-felt desire to make a better world.