Included below are the first three paragraphs of Stanley Heller's excellent Counterpunch article pointing out or reminding us that the Left seems to be bereft of any mechanism or ability to lobby Obama, no matter the issue or the maelstrom that he's pouring us into.
One of my mantras has been that Obama has long ago shown his true colors as a Bush-Cheney manqué (unsuccessful stand-in) and so if the Republicans don't take at least one House of Congress, he'll be very disappointed, perhaps devastated. It's called "pulling a Clinton." Clinton left the presidency with a high degree of popularity as a direct result of Republican control of Congress midway in his first term. That way he was able to pose as a leader by vetoing a portion of the worst they had to offer.
Since Obama has gone over to the dark side he'll only be comfortable when his real allies are in control.
(An interesting question is to what extent Obama intends to change course now that he's gotten rid of--if that's what happened--some of the most right-wing people in his administration: Emanuel, Jones, Summers.
One of the issues some have been following is the rate at which Obama has fallen behind his predecessor in filling judicial appointments. Could it be a result of his unwillingness to appoint those who would be acceptable to his base? Until recently I found it hard to believe that he would delay and delay until the Republicans controlled the Senate. Well such has turned out to be the case. Now what's going to happen if it turns out that the Tea Party has thrown a spanner into the works by denying Republican control of the upper House? Once again, who's going to be the most disappointed person in D.C.?
***
Timidity on the Mall
October 7, 2010
By STANLEY HELLER
The “One Nation Working Together” rally was billed as a chance to “demand the changes we voted for”. That slogan was just for the suckers. There was barely any criticism of the Administration from the main stage, just bleats for jobs and justice.
You would think that up on the main stage there would be giant banners with progressive slogans, “Obama, Hire Millions Now” “Defend Public Education from the Privatizers”, “Why are a Million Blacks in Prison?”, “Cut the Pentagon Budget in Half”. But there were no banners at all. Instead there were flags, lots of American flags.
None of the rally speakers were announced beforehand. That's always a big draw. Was it stupidity or just an effort to avoid showing that “peace” would not be part of the demonstration. Bless his heart, rally speaker Harry Belafonte did vigorously denounce our wars and he actually condemned the Afpak surge saying, “The President's decision to escalate the war in that region alone costs the nation $33 billion”. He didn't challenge the President to bring the troops home, but no one else on the main stage criticized Obama on anything.
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