Facing The Music

by Steve Soto

Obama's newfound acceptance of telecom immunity in the FISA compromise has led to disillusionment amongst some of his supporters, and amongst some of the same bloggers who drank the Obama Kool Aid and trashed Hillary Clinton as being just another politician.

Of course she is "just another politician." But so is he, and it was and continues to be naive for his supporters to think otherwise. Obama will say and do whatever it takes to win the election, even if it means tossing previous positions overboard. McCain is doing it, and so is Obama. It doesn't make either of them bad people, just politicians. Neither one has a monopoly on integrity, consistency, or sticking with principles. Both will make purely political calculations to get the prize.

Reflexively defending his behavior with another trashing of Hillary is irrelevant because she isn't the nominee, will never be the party's nominee, and we can never know what she would have done on these issues as the presumptive nominee.

All we can do is judge Obama on his actions and behavior since knocking out Hillary. And in the end, the decision in November must rest on whether or not you want four more years of GOP rule, not on some pollyanna view of "change" that many desperately projected upon Obama that may never come to pass.

Is he better than McCain? Certainly so. Is he an outside change agent that will undo the damage of the last eight years? Hell no, because many of the people around him are simply the Democrats' own version of Beltway insiders and scum that now want their own piece of the action, and even want to continue the same policies but under a Democratic gloss. And the Beltway isn't interested in change, doesn't care about shredding the Constitution or protecting American jobs. Obama's reversal on telecom immunity and NAFTA looks responsible to them, and to Team Obama, neutering the chattering class to any degree possible carries the day.

As for his disillusioned supporters? Go ahead and return to your "he really will be different, and you Clinton supporters are sore losers" argument. If it makes you feel better, go for it. But pass on the Kool Aid, OK?