Barack Obama, Establishment Man

By Larry Johnson on February 13, 2008 at 1:28 AM in Current Affairs
Originally Posted in No Quarter.

What’s wrong with this picture? Barack Obama runs as the “outsider” fighting against the “special” interests. Barack claims:

“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not get a job in my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”

— Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, November 10, 2007

Okay. Then if he is the candidate of change fighting Washington, why did a majority of the Washington, DC and the government employees in the surrounding suburbs and those pesky lobbyists and their spouses and employees, vote for Barack? You see, I believe that people act in their own interest. So, when the folks who live inside the beltway, vote in large measure for Barack, then maybe he is not what he claims to be.

The Obama cult is a phenomenom. A weird phenomenom. People are enthralled with the idea of Obama and know nothing about his past, his performance, and the scandals that will bring him down. And, smack dab in the middle of the enablers, are most of the TV and print journalists. Very few are writing or reporting the kind of tough stories they unleash on Hillary on a regular basis.

My neighbor, who is a prominent Republican lobbyist, was commenting the other day on the inspiring nature of the Obama campaign. He was repeating the positive vibe. I then asked him about issues such as Rezko and the disconnect between his rhetoric and how he actually votes. He was surprised and shocked. He said, “I haven’t heard any of this.” Obviously he’s not a reader of NoQuarter. But he is a politically astute, well-informed guy. When he heard the true story of Obama’s past (including Obama’s Kenyan ties and muslim relatives). He flipped.

Let’s face it. The establishment media have a habit of doing this shit. They happily went along with selling the Bush Administration bullshit and lies about the threat of terrorism and the need to invade Iraq. Oh sure, some, like Sy Hersh pushed back, but his efforts were overwhelmed by the likes of Michael Gordon and Judith Miller, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, and the Washington Post. There were clear voices warning beforehand that the intelligence was fixed and that the war was not needed, but the press played along with the Bush propaganda machine and persuaded a majority of Americans that war with Iraq was the only solution for keeping us safe.

And don’t start in with Obama’s so-called opposition to the war. One damn speech really doesn’t count. What counts is what he has done since coming to Washington. He hasn’t joined the likes of Russ Feingold in pushing for an immediate withdrawal. He’s played the politically safe game. I do not fault him for that. My beef is he thinks, rightly so, that most of the voters are too fucking dumb to realize that he is blowing smoke up their ass. Say one thing and do another.

Yeah, Obama is Mr. Anti-Washington. He is surrounded by Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Patrick Leahy. If you believe that those guys represent “changing the way business is done in Washington,” then you will believe anything.

We will know next week if Hillary can recover. I give the Obama camp credit. They organized and spent resources in Virginia and Maryland and thumped Hillary. Hillary’s campaign was awful in Maryland and Virginia. Obama’s folks made an effort to personally visit and speak with every registered Democrat. Hillary did not. Obama’s folks called every registered Democrat (or at least tried to) to ask for their vote. Hillary did not. This explains in part, I think, why Patti Doyle, the campaign manager, was fired. She is incompetent. I hope for the sake of the country that Maggie Williams has time to right the ship and get Hillary back on top.

In the meantime, we have to watch the equivalent of a papal coronation, as the media and fans exhult in the Obama Messiah, the black Jesus come to save us. But sometime in the next four months, the excitement will fade as the reality of who Obama is comes out.

Consider this simple example. How do Hillary and Obama handle foreign contributions?

Hillary requires every contribution from overseas to be made as a check and must be accompanied by a copy of the passport or green card that corresponds to the name on the check. This part of her fundraising is kept separate from that raised within the borders of the United. States

Obama, does not segregate his foreign money and has no controls in place to verify that the contributors are in fact legally entitled to contribute to his campaign.

Now I know Obamaphiles will simply bend over and stick their head in their neighbor’s ass and proclaim the putrid aroma as the heaven-sent breath of God. They will say this means nothing and is just carping.

Well, what happens a month or two down the road when the vetting of those contributions–whether by Hillary’s camp, the Republicans, or the FEC–occurs and it turns out laws were broken? If Obama is so brilliant, then why does he not understand that he needs to avoid these problems and avoid giving his opponents ammo? That tells me he ain’t all that bright. He does not have to worry about those details because, HE IS OBAMA.

What we have, ladies and gents, is another Establishment Man. Easily manipulated by the father figures he desperately seeks and gratified by the adulation of the masses, he is buying into his “man of destiny” nonsense. Many in the public are seized with this religious, worshipful madness. Unfortunately, Obama, conquering hero is riding in the parade and soaked in the praise of frenetic crowds. He has received very little pushback so far. But it will come. And Obama would be wise to heed the following advice:

For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. And a slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”