Obama and the Iraq Flap

1. He was quoted in the July 27, 2004 Chicago Tribune as saying, “There’s not that much difference between my position and George Bush’s position [on the Iraq War] at this stage”, and since taking office in January 2005 he has voted to approve every war appropriation the Republicans have put forward, totaling more than $300 billion;

2. With some hogwash speech about appealing to independents, he can be expected to choose Joe Lieberman (or Chuck Hagel or another Republican) as his running mate;

3. With more hogwash about appealing to independents in the Republican "red" states, he will refuse to campaign in any "blue" states and just concede them to McCain;

4. When Murtha called for immediate withdrawal from Iraq a year ago, Obama voyaged to the Council on Foreign Relations on November 22, 2005, to soothe the assembled elites by telling them how to "control" the wily Democrats with rhetoric;

5. In March 2005, Obama went out of his way to travel to Connecticut to campaign for Senator Joseph Lieberman who faced a tough challenge by anti-war candidate Ned Lamont. At a Democratic Party dinner attended by Lamont, Obama called Lieberman “his mentor” and urged those in attendance to vote and give financial contributions to Lieberman rather than Lamont;

6. Obama voted for "tort reform" and the bankruptcy bill, thus making it far harder for people to get redress or compensation;

7. Obama voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice;

8. Obama voted to close off any filibuster of Samuel Alito and confirm him to the Supreme Court;

9. When Senator Russell Feingold made a motion to censure the President for illegally wiretapping American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Obama declared "my and Senator Feingold's view is not unanimous. Some constitutional scholars and lower court opinions support the president's argument that he has inherent authority to go outside the bounds of the law in monitoring the activities of suspected terrorists. The question is whether the president understood the law and knowingly flaunted it." That's not the question at all.

10. Voted "Yes" on March 2 to final passage of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, unlike ten of his Democratic colleagues.

11. Obama voted for Dick Cheney's 2005 Energy Bill which has since been deemed "the greatest pork fest in all history";

12. A large number of companies involved in sub-prime lending practices are major Obama campaign contributors;

13. He voted against a cap on high credit card interest rates, ensuring many more people will continue to stay in debt and poverty;

14. He wants to increase the military by 100,000 troops and he plans to move troops from Iraq to an expansion of the war Afghanistan, merely changing the war rather than ending it;

15. In 2005, Obama joined Republicans in passing a law dubiously called the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) that would shut down state courts as a venue to hear many class action lawsuits. Obama in effect voted to deny redress in many of the courts where these kinds of cases have the best chance of surviving corporate legal challenges. Instead, it forces them into the backlogged Republican-judge dominated federal courts. Why would a civil rights lawyer knowingly make it harder for working-class people to have their day in court, in effect shutting off avenues of redress?; 16. While in the Illinois Senate, Obama voted to limit the recovery that victims of medical malpractice could obtain through the courts;

17. Obama opposed single-payer health care bill HR676, sponsored by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers in 2006, although at least 75 members of Congress supported it;

18. He wouldn’t have his picture taken with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom when visiting San Francisco for a fundraiser in his honor because Obama was scared voters might think he supports gay marriage. [Former Mayor Willie Brown admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle on February 5, 2008 that Obama told him he wanted to avoid Newsom for that reason];

19. On September 29, 2006, Obama joined Republicans in voting to build 700 miles of double fencing on the Mexican border (The Secure Fence Act of 2006);

20. Obama acknowledges the disproportionate impact the death penalty has on blacks, but still supports expanding it, while other politicians are fighting to stop it;

21. Obama has now declined public campaign financing and is poised to vote for telecom immunity next week – in spite of promises to filibuster against it.

Obama has fallen into a dangerous pattern of capitulation that he cannot reconcile with his growing popularity as an agent of change. Fasten your seat belts, kids -- it's going to be a bumpy ride.