Represent! (the Public Option)

We are supposed to have representative government here in this country, aren't we?

That's what I thought. So why are our elected officials so willfully ignoring public opinion? Apparently, our senators think they know what we the people want better than we know ourselves. Apparently, what they deem 'political suicide' is what polling calls 'public support'. Not only does a majority of the American public support a public option, according to recent polling - a majority of physicians do, as well. If our representatives aren't supporting the views of the masses, and they aren't acting on behalf of doctors to protect our health, there's only one interest left that they could possibly be pulling for...

... and that, my friends, is the insurance industry.

Is this what we elect our officials for - to legislate in favor of the all-powerful insurance companies, who long have enjoyed monopoly control over our lives and health, who rake in profits by denying us treatment for our illnesses and injuries, who are the only real example of "death panels" this country has?? I certainly don't think so, and it's time for these so-called "representatives" of ours to be called out for their shady behavior.

The most frustrating aspect of all of this, however, is Obama's glaring failure as a leader. Republican opposition to health care reform was a given from the very start, and instead of standing up for what he allegedly believes in, for a major part of the platform the American public elected him on, for the course of action a majority of the country supports... he is throwing himself at the feet of Congressional Republicans, sacrificing the will of the people and of the base of his own party in attempt to score a few measly votes from the GOP. All this, just so he can call whatever pathetic excuse for a bill that passes an example of "bipartisanship", and claim to have ushered in a new era of peace, harmony and shattered party lines. It's a joke, and he's rapidly squandering what political capital he had, with the result being only to alienate his Democratic base, turn the majority of the American public against him, and show the Republicans - who last time I checked, Mr. President, were the MINORITY PARTY - that he will go out of his way to cater to their interests, even at his own expense. I'm sorry, but that's just plain pathetic. As I've said before, when the Republicans are in power, they may completely ravage our economy, our international image and our individual liberties -- but at least they know how to get stuff done. They get what they want, because they take the popular mandate and use it to exert their authority. When Democrats are in power, all they seem to be able to do is to sacrifice their own supposed political ideology in an effort to please the other side.

Now, the fate of the public option - and thus, the fate of the American health care system - seems to be up to the White House. With two consecutive public-option amendments being voted down in the Senate finance committee, with public-option supporters vowing to continue the fight and the opposition refusing to budge, with a House bill likely to contain a public option but a Senate unlikely to push for reconciliation in the face of an anticipated lack of 60 favorable votes... Congress is looking to Obama to step in and mediate. The President needs, for once in his term, to show some leadership. It is time for him to look the nation in the eye and state unequivocally what he championed on the campaign trail - the necessity of a public option to reforming our health care system. Any bill without a public option would be worse than doing nothing at all, because once Obama's got another legislative feather to stick in his cap, he's going to declare the health care problem solved and move on, and we Americans will be stuck with this woefully inadequate system for the rest of our foreseeable future.

So please, Obama, show us just one example of that "change" we've been hearing so much about. Do what I really believe you know is right for the American public. Forget about appeasing a minority party who is going to find a way to oppose you no matter what you do. Just in terms of tactics, start acting like a Republican and just "git 'er done". Because unlike the last Republican President... the majority of the American people support what you want to do. It's time to start acting like the leader of the free world you supposedly are.

Take charge in support of a public option, and maybe, just maybe... our nation will have something we can believe in again.

The Change We Can Believe In?!?

There's really nothing I can add to this... the headline says it all.

"U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, But With More Oversight"

The Audacity of Nope

Well, folks, looks like President Pushover is at it again. The past several weeks have heard a level of debate, accusation, misinformation and scare-tactic hyperbole that has achieved sheer lunacy over the issue of health care reform. For a while, it seemed as though a plan with a public option was pretty much a given; most Americans seemed to support it, many members of Congress seemed at least open to the possibility of its inclusion in legislation, and Obama pitched it at every public-speaking opportunity he could. It should have been a sure thing - with all in its favor, there should never have been any doubt that whatever neutered legislation finally emerged from Congress would at least have a public option as an available choice. The public desperately wants, and needs, health care reform. Nobody - except those with a financial interest in their continued monopoly - is satisfied with the insurance companies and their death grip (literally) on the American populace. Medical professionals have spoken out time and again about the brokenness of the current system. Obama, whose campaign rhetoric frequently referenced health care reform, was elected with a strong mandate, and his approval rating is still tremendously high for a new president. The Democrats have control (theoretically) over both Houses of Congress. They have the ability to pass practically any legislation they want without one vote from the Republicans. Skyrocketing health care costs are bankrupting the citizenry, and insurance companies are signing Americans' death warrants by denying coverage overall or refusing to cover potentially lifesaving procedures.

So WHY is Obama falling over backwards to cater to the Republicans?! Why is he doing everything in his power to please a minority party with record-low approval ratings?!? Why is the Democratic leadership, supposedly the champion of the common man, supposedly not deep in the pockets of the rich, the powerful, the insurance company CEOs, doing their damndest to neuter whatever reform legislation comes their way to the point of utter uselessness?

There is absolutely NOTHING audacious about this administration thus far. Obama is playing to the center while alienating everyone even remotely on the outskirts. The Democrats in the House and Senate are proving themselves, once again, to be just another bunch of shady politicians, no better than any other party they denounce at election time. And the worst part is, they don't even have anything to show for this behavior. When the Republicans are in power, they may piss a lot of people off, but damn it, they get what they want. They get legislation passed, they make policy, they issue bold and definitive statements about ideology political and otherwise. I may not like the Republicans - but at least I feel like I know where they stand. With Obama and the Democrats, I just feel like I've been had. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, and time and time again this proves a tragic mistake.

I think it's time for the President and the Democratic leadership to really let us know where they stand. If all they're doing is looking out for themselves, fine - just let us know about it. In my mind, they are thoroughly in the red in terms of their political capital; next time, I'll be voting for Nader. If they want to completely bungle their one shot at real power, at the time when it should have been so easy for them to establish their agenda it's laughable, then they don't deserve to hold on to any of it.

But please, for the sake of all Americans, just don't bungle this one. Let us have the health care reform that we so desperately need and deserve. Let us join the ranks of every other civilized nation in the world and actually provide for our citizens, for a change.

Just this one time, stick to your original principles... let us hear one final "yes we can". It was a good slogan. It's just a shame it only applied as far as election day.

Resistance is Futile

Obama and pals are going to get a health care reform bill passed before the sun sets on 2009, and they're going to do it whether the bill turns out to be an ineffective turd that will squelch the chances of passing any meaningful health care legislation within our lifetimes or not.

Rahm Emanuel said as much - "failure is not an option". And "failure", to this administration, is characterized solely by an inability to pass a piece of legislation this year. "Failure" has nothing to do with the actual effectiveness of said legislation, nothing to do with this so-called reform's ability to provide universal, affordable and effective health care coverage to Americans. The administration is so dead-set on getting something, anything passed, that they don't care what it's going to do to the greater cause of health care reform in the future. They're going to destroy whatever small chance might exist for a single-payer system in the future; they're going to rally Republicans everywhere to decry the evils of socialized medicine; they're going to run the national deficit even further through the roof, and despite all this, they're going to end up with some neutered piece of all-too-familiar looking legislation, stuffed with Republican amendments that completely change the original intention in some half-assed attempt at "bipartisanship" that still leaves too many Americans without access to the care they need, and when this bill fails to have any tangible positive effect on individual and national life, the Republicans are going to come back with guns blazing in 2012 or 2016 and set us back to a worse situation than we were in to begin with.

Obama is so focused on not becoming Hillary Clinton, he's becoming George W. Bush.

He's going to pass something just so he can check it off his presidential to-do list. It doesn't matter if it actually accomplishes its intended goal - it's fulfilling a campaign promise by just doing something he can point to when it comes time for re-election. This is the health care version of No Child Left Behind - it sounds great, it ostensibly fulfills an intended goal of meeting a pressing social need, but at the end of the day, it accomplishes absolutely nothing, except maybe making the problem even worse.

Keep a close watch on this developing political battle, America... because if they fuck up this one, we're all going to get left behind.

P.S.

Where is John Edwards when we need him? Oh, right... his career was decimated because Democrats aren't allowed to survive political sex scandals, whereas Republicans just make a public apology, promise to be good, and stay put in office (see Larry Craig, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford, to name just a few).

More Light Shed on the Prince of Darkness

Machiavelli would be proud.

Kicking the Habit

Two of the biggest recent news headlines - the death of Michael Jackson and the resignation of Sarah Palin from the Alaska Governorship - are interrelated in a way that is perhaps not readily apparent. Both the corporeal departure of the King of Pop and the political death of America's Hockey Mom represent the inevitable denouement to the pursuit of power and fame. Both were, in the end, the agents of their own destruction... and yet the blame is largely deflected to the media these erstwhile celebrities courted themselves.

Michael Jackson was thrust into the limelight at a young age via his early success with the Jackson Five. As his own star rose brightly and rapidly, Jackson sought the publicity that kept it soaring upward; he purposely attracted the media, courting a blossoming paparazzi culture that would evolve into the gossip-soaked, reality-synthesizing, exploitation-obsessed behemoth it is today. It has been argued that Jackson's love affair with this sort of celebrity caused a shift in tabloid media "reporting" from fantastical yarns about the Loch Ness Monster, alien autopsies and the ghost of Lincoln to the more ambiguously believable scoops on celebrity sex scandals, drug overdoses and eating disorders, and Jackson needed the paparazzi to survive as much as they needed him. In fact, probably more; there will always be new celebrities for the tabloids to gobble up, and thus Jackson became a master of weird, fringe-media attracting stunts over the years - naming his son "Blanket", dangling said Blanket out of a third story window above throngs of reporters, molding himself beyond recognition with plastic surgery, building a ranch called "Neverland" at which young boys just may have found out a little more than they'd like to about Peter Pan... the list goes on. In the end, the personal destruction that naturally accompanies an unrivaled quest for power and fame got the better of him, and Jackson's body, no longer able to stay up without prescription painkillers or go to sleep without anesthesia - anesthesia, for Chrissakes!! - simply gave out on him, in the midst of rehearsing for the pop world tour that would supposedly, at age 50, give the King his crown back.

Sarah Palin also seemed to stumble into the national spotlight after John McCain, deep into the 2008 campaign against superstar Barack Obama, made her his surprise pick for the vice presidential position. Much like Jackson, however, Palin and her surrogates had been making passes at the media early on, and this attraction only blossomed when the public began eating it up. She was coining catch-phrases, bumbling ignorantly through television interviews, proselytizing to crowds of rabid Republican fans, and hurling attacks at every oppositional demographic faster than you could wink an eye, and she handily stole the spotlight from that old guy who was supposed to be running for president. She single-handedly changed the terms of the debate, the tone of the campaign and, ultimately, the tide of support for the Republican presidential ticket. Moderates who previously had rallied to McCain's cause began drifting towards the Democrats; liberals became reinvigorated in their opposition; thinking Conservatives everywhere cringed at the Thrilla from Wasilla's painfully obvious ignorance and lack of experience. And Palin obviously was loving every minute of it. She bucked campaign advisers (remember that whole "going rogue" business?), continued to hold disastrous interviews - even went on Saturday Night Live after Tina Fey had made a career out of damningly impersonating her. It became quite apparent that the only person in the race Sarah Palin cared about was Sarah Palin, and since she first left Alaska, her constituents have only noticed that trend increasing. She has hardly even been in the state during the eight months post-election, opting instead for speaking tours, media and party events and visits to the lower 48. She has accomplished practically nothing politically, either, passing only one of her proposed bills; what bipartisan relations she had maintained with state Democrats in the passed completely evaporated after months of the Governor's partisan haranguing. Scandalous ruminations on her family and business relations have circulated constantly in the press. And, perhaps most tellingly, she has spent a fortune of her personal finances and millions of dollars of the state of Alaska's money on some fifteen ethics complaints that have been filed against her during only two and a half years in office. She eroded her credibility, destroyed her ability to govern, and made a fool of herself and her family in front of the entire nation; and, after resigning the Governorship, the one credit she could point to as qualification for higher elective office, before finishing her first term, she killed her political career and buried whatever chance she might have had at the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination. She got a taste of fame and power, she couldn't get enough, and became another instance of the brightest star burning the shortest time. Lucky for all of us - but a downright embarrassing fall for the woman once hailed as the next leader of the GOP.

Of course, both Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson are getting the truckloads of press coverage they love(d) so well. Unfortunately for them, it's the kind of publicity that only happens once. Soon enough, the media will move on to more sensational headlines, to the next rising stars of the political and entertainment scenes, and their stories will fade from the hot topic of the moment to the stuff of dusty legend. Because as long as the public eats up substanceless infotainment, and as long as narcissistic celebrities throw themselves into the spotlight, the press will keep up this enabling relationship. Maybe someday we can all learn better. Maybe someday we can break this cycle of addiction. Maybe someday celebrities, consumers and reporters alike can kick the habit of sensational obsession.

Maybe. But probably not.

Hurry Up and Wait

In keeping with the double-talk that has characterized the administration thus far, President Obama, speaking on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, delivered another subtextually-condescending snippet to the gay community (many of whom had helped elect the so-called candidate of change, and many of whom dropped out of a recent DNC fundraiser after the White House released its offensive statement likening homosexuality to incest, and supporting that Republican stalwart, the Defense of Marriage Act). Even the flowery rhetoric of our generation's Great Communicator couldn't hide his administration's patronizing and hypocritical stance.

Perhaps the most infuriating thing about this speech is that Obama makes it clear he sees the double standard he is perpetrating, saying "it's not for me to tell you to be patient anymore than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago." And yet, in the next breath, he tells the gay community exactly that - to just be patient, that the administration has other priorities, to hurry up and wait for their civil rights. This admission thoroughly implicates Obama in active discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgendered Americans; by himself drawing the parallel between the struggle for gay equality and the civil rights battles of the 1960s, he admits that gays and lesbians are treated as second-class citizens, that they do not currently have the liberties promised to all American citizens - and that they must continue to sit idly by while this treatment continues, sanctioned by the highest levels of government.

Obama's remark that "by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration" left the sourest of tastes in my mouth. 'By the end of the administration'? 'You guys'? In one sentence, he reveals that gay rights is of the lowest priority on his presidential agenda, and emphasizes the 'otherness' of the LGBT community. The subtle condescension of this remark is exemplary of Obama's whole attitude towards gay rights - indeed, towards many of the progressive causes he seemed to advocate when he was on the campaign trail. On the surface, it seems reasonable; to those who are not passionately invested in the issues, it sounds fair, pragmatic, bipartisan. But dig a little deeper, read the fine print, and you will find a conservative, corporatist politician who's just, like all the rest of them, trying to play it safe with an eye to the next election.

To quote Joe Biden, from a stump speech for then-candidate Obama himself: "That's not change. That's more of the same." It's time for us all to start paying attention to the discrepancies between who it is we voted for, and who ended up in the White House, after all.

All the World's a Stage...

I have to preface this post by noting that I haven't written in a long time, due to the chaos of an impending move halfway across the country to a state I've never been outside the airport in. Yep... my better half and I are moving to Austin, TX, to add a little more blue to the big red state. Wish us luck. And now, back to politics.

Almost five months in to the Obama presidency, and my disillusion has long since set in. Sure, I'm glad that he won, it's great that the first black President is in the White House... but I have to say, I think I was right the first time about our friend Barack. My initial perception of him as being long on charisma and short on conviction; as being a master of rhetoric, but an ineffective policymaker; as being a champion of the masses only so long as the cameras were rolling; as being a successful peacemaker, but a blatant panderer... all of this, which I myself forgot in the fervor of the campaign and the excitement of historical milestone-setting, has unfortunately come to bear.

What irks me the most is that, really, I don't think he's a bad guy, and I don't generally think he has bad intentions. The problem is, we never know what his intentions truly are; we may never know what Barack Obama, the man, really believes. Everything about the President is a carefully crafted persona. A public facade. He aims to please, and he aims to please whomever the moment deems politically advantageous. Often, I think he's trying to please the right people - for example, worldwide Muslim populations, the international community - but almost as often, I think he's not, and the whole thing is beside the point anyway, since he should really be trying to promote what he thinks are the best policies, regardless of whom they may or may not appeal to. It's no coincidence he's always name-dropping Ronald Reagan - Obama is a panderer in the tradition of the master himself.

Like his Republican predecessor, Obama uses religious rhetoric and references to sell himself and certain of his agenda items - but I don't even get the impression that he's all that into religion. Sure, I think he believes in a Judeo-Christian traditional-type model of god, but really, I just don't think he cares that much. His past church attendance was spotty at best (his claim to have never heard most of the infamous Reverend Wright's sermons was true - he wasn't there); the Obamas still haven't found a church in the DC area, to the best of my knowledge; and when he speaks of god and religion, he tends to do so in general, broadly appealing terms... I doubt you'd ever hear this President cop to talking policy with the Almighty. He also is the first post-evangelical-revival Prez to directly reference atheists and agnostics in his public addresses (though, betraying his ever-present attempt to have it both ways, he did so using the heavily loaded term "non-believers").

God-fearing folk aren't the only ones to whom Obama has spoken out both sides of his mouth. He rails loudly and frequently against the banking industry, credit card companies and other powerful financial institutions - then throws trillions of taxpayer money at them whenever the opportunity arises, imposing only meager regulations. He says that all Americans deserve affordable health care - then backs down from the public option, the only option that would be truly affordable and accessible to everyone. He speaks in support of gay rights - then has Rick Warren speak at his inauguration, ignores his campaign pledge to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, and signs on to a White House memo supporting the Defense of Marriage Act and likening homosexuality to incest. He swore up and down the campaign trail and back again to end the war in Iraq and finish what we started in Afghanistan - then throws tankloads of defense dollars at both quagmires, and deploys an ever-increasing number of additional troops to the wage an unwinnable battle in the poppy-covered country no foreign power has ever emerged from victorious. This President talks a big, beautiful talk - and while I'm more than happy to have a Commander-in-Chief who can formulate a coherent sentence, words without deeds are unfortunately rather meaningless.

Basically, Obama acts like he's for the little guy, and then rolls over for the powerful interests that be time and time again. I admit it... I bought into his populist rhetoric in the heightened passions of the final months of the campaign season. And he sounded like he really believed it. I actually think that he does, deep down... that underneath the slick facade is a true egalitarian, a man of the people, a man with firm convictions and policy prescriptions. The problem is, he's bought into his own hype, and now seems more concerned with appearing on television, on building his media brand, than he is with bringing those buried convictions to bear in his own government. Obama has delivered a whole hell of a lot of speeches in the past several months... but what has he really accomplished? He promised that change was coming to Washington - and I'd like to see a little of that change actually occur. Let's get some things done. To quote Bill Maher: "We're done with the audacity of hope. Now I'm hoping for a little more audacity."

Play a part long enough, and eventually, you won't even be acting anymore. Here's hoping that one of these days, we get more than just a performance.

Comfortably Numb

Maybe I'm alone on this one, but I have to admit that, as disgusting and reprehensible as AIG's use of taxpayer money to pay unwarranted executive bonuses may be... I just can't really care anymore. I've become so desensitized to the news of Ponzi-schemers stealing millions, financial-sector bigwigs lining their own pockets with our bailout money, spectacularly-failing Wall Street firms getting government aid only to continue to plummet flaming into the night, that honestly, I've become too numb to react anymore. I feel about as much tangible outrage about the most recent AIG scandal as President Obama actually expresses in his public statements... which is to say, yeah, in theory I'm angry, but it's not really worth the energy required to express it. Nothing's changed, and nothing will, as long as the government keeps attempting to solve the neverending catastrophes of the financial sector by throwing exorbitant sums of money at incompetent institutions staffed by greedy bourgeosie who haven't felt effect one of this supposedly capitalism-crippling recession.

You sort of lose the right to be "outraged" about a situation that you were essentially responsible for creating - or at the very least, should have seen coming a mile away. These organizations are failing for a reason. The people in power on Wall Street are not about to have a sudden philanthropic epiphany just because you tell them their practices are hurting ordinary Americans. They're not going to have an attack of conscience because you wag your finger at them.

So here's an idea for the Obama administration. STOP GIVING THEM THE MONEY. They've already had their chance at subsidized reformation. If this is how they think a business should be run - then that business should be allowed to fail. Put the taxpayer dollars where they might actually make a difference - in health care reform, in green-infrastructure development, in funding renewable energy distribution, in helping Americans get an education, in making sure the Social Security dollars we're paying in are still going to be there when we need them, in protecting the environment and supporting scientific innovation, in making rent more affordable and stemming foreclosures... I can think of an endless number of uses for that money better than bailing out Wall Street tycoons. That's the kind of change I want to see in this country.

I don't know about the rest of you... but I'm starting to think Jon Stewart is more qualified to run the Treasury than Tim Geithner. It's time for a populist revolution... who's with me?

Anyone?

Yeah, I know. You don't care anymore, either.

Do The Right Thing

President Obama has found his administration faced with yet another opportunity to either forge a new direction for national policy, or to kowtow to the opposition in another ineffective attempt at finding the middle path. The most recent issue involves whether to award full benefits to same-sex spouses of federal employees, as outlined in the New York Times today. So far, when Obama finds himself publicly caught in the middle (as he so often does, given his self-designation as the national moderator), he has cast out a halfhearted attempt at pleasing both sides - which usually ends up as both sides getting pissed off and nothing new really being accomplished. Here's hoping that President Obama can, on at least this one issue, look at the evidence and see the clear choice that should be made; denying same-sex spouses of federal employees benefits, spouses legally married in their home state and thus entitled to all the matrimonial rights the state allows, is nothing short of discrimination. To strip these spouses of their rights based purely on their sexual orientation, based on some sick and arbitrary conception you have of what they ought to be doing in the privacy of their own bedrooms, is pure prejudice. It is no different than denying a spouse of a federal employee benefits because the spouse happened to be black, and Obama, of all people, should recognize this, should see the blatant hypocrisy between his stated ideals and some of his official rhetoric. Interracial marriage used to be illegal; such is the state of gay marriage today. But in those few states that have managed to inch forward in this stale debate, the federal government should recognize the rights these local governments designated and stop trying to legislate the national morality based on the personal convictions of a powerful few. The administration needs to cash some of those social-justice checks its campaign has written.

In short: President Obama, do the right thing.

The Silver (Embryonic) Lining

Within the cloud of disappointing half-measures President Obama has brought to the political forefront lately, today reveals a silver lining. Obama's repeal of President Bush's ban on using federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research is a breath of progressive fresh air in an increasingly stagnant moderate atmosphere. This action, and the memo released in conjunction with it, reveals a glimpse of the open-minded rationalist we saw on the campaign trail, what seems like an eternity ago, before the depressing realities of compromise and acceptance of the system settled upon the shoulders of our fearless leader. Obama's firm stance on the separation of science and ideology is a refreshing reminder of why we voted for him - a reminder I wish we'd get more often. We know he is capable of standing up for his beliefs, for the preservation of scientific integrity, for the triumph of pragmatic truth over unthinking ideology, for the well-being of all Americans over the interests of the priveleged few. All we can do now is hope that he will take such a stand when the battles over health care, energy and the environment are brought to the front lines. So far, he hasn't given much sign that he will. But maybe, just maybe, he'll lead us in that now-familiar chorus: "yes we can."

Half-Measures Avail Us Nothing...

I think, as usual, I'm in the minority here, but early as it may be, I really don't think I either love or hate the Obama administration. So far, it seems like everything Obama has tackled has amounted to a nice try... but just not quite enough. And I think it's pretty safe to infer that this is and will continue to be the Administration of Half-Measures. Obama's not going to do anything horrible (no illegal wars or warantless wiretapping here, I daresay)... but he's not going to do anything great, either. Just as I feared in the beginning, now-President Obama is just too eager to please, has too much of that kum-ba-ya congeniality to really take a stand for a liberal agenda, is just too "post-partisan" to really act on progressive legislation.

Which is a shame. Because desperate times call for desperate measures, and after eight years of eroding civil liberties, increasingly compromised ideals of equality and justice, snowballing deregulation, flagrant cronyism and influence peddling... we need bold, progressive legislation like never before.

But so far, we have gotten nothing but the half-measures typical of Democratic leaders (see Clinton), only with an insanely elevated emphasis on the (obviously failed) idea of "bipartisanship". Obama tried to bring Republican leaders into his cabinet - and he was made the naif by would-be Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg's belated coming-to-Jesus moment. He called to mind images of the New Deal with his proposed stimulus package, promising renewed investments in infrastructure, promising real progress in alternative transportation and green energy - and we got some token allocations with the same old majority emphasis on roads, with infrastructure repairs many deem insufficient, and with a huge bone thrown to the opposition in the form of tax breaks and slashed budgets for science and education (and for what? In the end only 3 Senate and zero House Republicans voted for the bill). He spoke in sweeping generalities of a new era of inclusiveness and equality - then had Rick Warren give the invocation at his inaugural, and increased the funding and scope of George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. We were promised the dawn of accountability and oversight - and we got Cabinet nominees who were tax cheats and an almost completely useless government website. We were promised and end to America's foreign crusades - and we're getting a repositioning of the front lines from Iraq to Afghanistan (as evidenced by Obama's quiet commitment of 17,000 additional troops to the region). We were promised a new and improved health care system - and we're getting the same old health care system, only available to more people at the same abhorrent social and financial costs (where's John Edwards when you really need him??). We were promised redemption, and we're letting the Bush administration scuttle back to their caves, consultantships, think tanks and hedge funds, 100% scot-free.

He told us he wouldn't let a crisis go to waste. And so far, it looks an awful lot like he's letting a crisis go to waste.

Enough with the pandering. Enough with the fruitless attempts at bipartisan compromise. Enough with trying to have it both ways. America is in crisis, and the last thing we need is to prolong our inevitable descent into irrelevance. This is a time for bold action, a progressive agenda, for - what's that word again? Oh, right - change. So far, I haven't seen a whole hell of a lot that I can believe in... except the grim realization that old politics never dies - it just gets better marketing campaigns.

I'm not giving up on Obama yet... I just think he's on a current path to Clintondom. Which maybe was all he ever wanted from the beginning... but he made me think he'd be so much more.