http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/e...rce=newsletter


Thursday July 10, 2008 06:49 EDT
Betrayed by Obama
What an interesting week: I came back from vacation to find the two
presumptive presidential nominees running away from their bases. Suddenly
John McCain is evading, not embracing, the media, limiting access and
getting testy with the very people whose formerly friendly coverage made him
a popular "maverick." Meanwhile, Barack Obama is complaining that his
"friends on the left" just don't understand him -- he's not moving to the
center, he is "no doubt" a progressive, just one who now supports the
scandalous FISA "compromise" and Antonin Scalia's views on gun rights and
the death penalty, no longer plans to accept public campaign funding, and
wants to make sure women aren't feigning mental distress to get a
"partial-birth" abortion (the right's despicable term of choice; the correct
phrase is either late-term or third-trimester abortion).

I actually have some sympathy for Obama. He was never the great progressive
savior that his fans either thought he was, or peddled to their readers.
While Arianna Huffington and Markos Moulitsas and Tom Hayden were hyping him
as the progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton, Obama was getting away
with backing a healthcare bill less progressive than Clinton's, adopting GOP
talking points on the Social Security "crisis" and double-talking on NAFTA.
So why shouldn't he think his "friends on the left" will put up with his
abandoning other progressive causes?

I've admired Obama, but I never confused him with a genuine progressive
leader. Today I don't admire him at all. His collapse on FISA is
unforgivable. The only thing Obama has going for him this week is that
McCain is matching him misstep for misstep. While we're railing about
Obama's craven vote on FISA -- rightfully; Glenn Greenwald is a hero for his
work on this topic -- McCain was outdoing Dick Cheney with neocon crazy
talk, warning that Iran's test of nine old missiles we already knew they had
increases the chances of a "second Holocaust." Every time I wonder whether I
can ultimately vote for Obama in November, given all of his political
cave-ins, McCain does something new to make sure I have to.

But Obama needs to watch himself. Telling voters they have no place else to
go, before he officially has the nomination, is not a winning strategy.
That's what his people told Clinton voters. That's what they're saying about
opponents of the FISA sellout. That's the line on those concerned about his
"partial-birth" abortion remarks. It's arrogant -- up against the backdrop
of Obama's big plans for an Invesco Field acceptance speech in Denver and a
Brandenberg Gate extravaganza in Berlin, I'm starting to worry about
grandiosity -- and it could backfire.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, voted against the FISA bill, but I think "what
ifs" are unproductive. Matthew Yglesias' self-justifying fiction that, if
she was the nominee, she'd have done what Obama did, is silly. But none of
us can really know she'd have done the right thing in Obama's shoes. Since I
believe Clinton's craven vote to authorize the Iraq war in 2002 cost her the
Democratic nomination, I do find myself wondering whether she learned her
lesson about caving in to GOP threats. It's funny how so many defeated
Democrats -- Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards and now Clinton -- seem to
become more progressive after they learn that pandering can't protect them
from the attacks of the GOP and its friends in the media. Let's hope Obama
doesn't have to learn that lesson the same way.

Of course, the only thing more offensive than Obama's yes vote on FISA was
McCain's decision to skip the vote entirely -- and then trash Obama for
"flip-flopping" on FISA. Unfortunately, Obama did flip-flop on FISA, but
McCain didn't bother to show up. So far, this has been a really dispiriting
campaign. Part of the problem, I think, is that the two finalists are guys
beloved by the media, who've had a fairly free ride to here. With their
rivals out of the way, they're getting more scrutiny, and it's not all
adoring. Having won impressive underdog victories, neither campaign seems
ready for prime time. I know one thing, I'd really like to vote for the guy
who said this:

"This Administration has put forward a false choice between the liberties we
cherish and the security we demand. When I am president, there will be no
more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens; no more national security
letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime; no more
tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. Our
Constitution works, and so does the FISA court."

Too bad Obama doesn't believe that anymore.