Who Obama is and where we go from here.

Barack Obama
was the lesser of evils.
A Rockefeller Republican
at best and an unapologetic
corporatist at heart.

He did not fool progressives.
We knew who he was and
heard what he said.

On the plus side:
He will strenghten unions and
help to rebuild the middle class.
He may accomplish incremental improvements in
health-care access and redirect education funding.
His efforts towards rebuilding infrastructure,
and resuming productive research and development
are useful reforms will do much to repair the
economic meltdown orchestrated by the
Republican right wing. His eloquence
and intelligence will improve our
relations with both
allies and enemies.

On the downside:
He will expand the war, allow corporate transnationals to
define and set costs for our healthcare, and ignore
constitutional transgressions of the Bush administration
and their sponsors. The precedents he will allow to go
unchallenged do not bode well for our nation.

If we are lucky, we may persuade him to reconsider some
of his more egregious decisions, but out of concern for
self-preservation,(not wanting to get shot) he may not
deliver the change hoped for. But he beats the heck
out of the McLain-Palin disaster.

In 2012 we can rid the party of those who supported Bush.
And perhaps in 2016 we can elect a progressive reformer
willing, in the liberal American tradition, to challenge
the status quo. Someone who can stand up for working people,
jobs with justice, and universal health-care and education.

Tim