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The Left & the Barack Obama phenomenon: the good, the bad and the empty.

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But when Obama gave a speech in front of AIPAC, he was so egregious in his pandering that he drew jubilant praise from some of the most hawkish supporters of Israel in the media today. Samuel Rosner, arguably the most pro-Israel voice at Haaretz, said Obama was "as strong as Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Guliani. At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel. Period."

Marty Peretz, the editor-at-large of the New Republic, and a chronic apologist for Israeli war crimes, was also impressed. He said of the speech:

"I believe he must have satisfied (nearly) all of those who had been skeptical of his grasp of the Israeli conundrum. Very much satisfied them. Me, included. (His was an extremely sophisticated analysis.) And he must also have disillusioned all of those who'd hoped--like the lefty blogosphere--that he'd be oh-so-sympathetic to the self-inflicted Palestinians."

Indeed, Obama was no such thing. He click here that Israel was "our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy," He added, "we must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs" which would "deter missile attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza."

"As if the starved, besieged and traumatized population of Gaza are about to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles," noted Ali Abunimah in Electronic Intifada.

Further, David Sirota has noted Obama's connection to at least one big-wig in the defense industry.

"Buried at the very bottom of a New York Times story marveling at Barack Obama's ability to shakedown wealthy Chicago scions for big cash, we find out that one of the Illinois senator's biggest donors is the family that owns one of the largest defense contractors in the world, General Dynamics. What a shock, then, that Obama hasn't discussed our bloated military budget even though click here show the public wants that budget reeled in."
And this is just scratching the surface of Obama's non-progressive ways. As Paul Street observes, Obama voted to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT ACT, gave his valuable support to neoconservative Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- CONN) as he faced off against his anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, voted to approve Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state and opposed Sen. Feingold's move to censure Bush for his illegal wiretapping of US citizens.

Obama and Domestic Policy

As bad as his foreign policy positions are, they are still unambiguously to the left of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The same can not be said of his domestic platform, where Obama has been especially disappointing. His policy positions, in some cases are to the right of Clinton's.

For starters, as Robert Kuttner observed in an excellent article for the American Prospect, Obama has strong ties to Richard Rubin, former chairman of Goldman Sachs and the chief economic strategist for Democrats throughout the Clinton years. Rubin represents the old neoliberal thinking that dominated the 90s; he is also a key player in the Hamilton Project, which as Kuttner notes, is dedicated to promoting "free capital movements." They also flirt with privatizing social security.

That Obama has solicited the help of Rubin is a sure sign that, despite the country's growing antipathy for neoliberalism, he will not be endorsing any kind of substantively different economic word view. Kuttner writes:

"If the Rubin doctrine again dominates the Democrats' pocketbook program, it will once again blunt the Democrats' (now resurgent) appeal as the party of the common American."
And indeed the extent of Obama's Rubinization is evident in his campaign. On health care, he favors a plan that, while similar to Clinton's, is slightly less ambitious. This is mainly because Obama concedes his plan, which unlike Clinton's plan, does not require one buy insurance (known as an individual mandate), will leave a few million without insurance; Clinton claims her plan covers everyone, which, as Harvard's Steffie Woolhandler notes, "is pure fantasy."

Reasonable people can disagree over which nominee's flawed plan is less bad.None of these candidates are anywhere close to the American public (or for that matter the rest of the world) on health care. 56 percent of the country said they would prefer a single-payer plan "like Medicare" to our current system. Further, the country is willing to pay higher taxes to see such a plan implemented. What's more, there is a bill, HR676, which would provide Medicare for all. It has more than 80 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, but Obama, like a lot of Democrats, will not go near it.

But what is especially unsettling about Obama on this issue, is the angle he has taken in critiquing the others' health care plan. As Paul Krugman observed in the New York Times:

"[L]ately Mr. Obama has been stressing his differences with his rivals by attacking their plans from the right - which means that he has been giving credence to false talking points that will be used against any Democratic health care plan a couple of years from now .... by echoing the talking points of those who oppose any form of universal health care, he's making the task of any future president who tries to deliver universal care considerably more difficult.
Obama has used the same approach on Social Security. He continues to perpetuate the right-wing myth that Social Security is in some kind of fiscal crises. These talking points are designed by conservatives, to dismantle one of the lasting relics from the New Deal, and Obama, by repeating them, only helps this myth gain traction. "Everyone knows Social Security, as it's constructed, is not going to be in the same place it's going to be for the next generation, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives," Obama told Tim Russert on Meet the Press.

Krugman, again, takes issue with this assessment.

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Michael Corcoran is a freelance writer based in Boston who has been published by The Boston Globe, The Nation, Common Dreams, Alternet, CBSNews.com, Campus Progress, Blast Magazine, and Extra!. His work, focusing largely on foreign policy, the (more...)
 
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