I’ve been writing since almost before the inauguration about decisions Barack Obama was making that were, to me, “red flags.”  Well, many of these so-called “flags” are coming home to roost.  And, this was my purpose all along, I really hoped President Obama would start to listen to the people who elected him instead of the Rahm Emanuel’s and the Tim Geithner’s and the Larry Summer’s – because – kind of like how I feel with my students when one of them fails- we’re all in this together and IF OBAMA FAILS we all fail.  I’ve also written lately about my frustration with the “pundits” on the “left” who are willing to be the “mouthpiece” for the President – as if those of us who supported him are Democratic carbon copies of the Republicans who fell into line “lockstep” behind George W Bush.  I have listened with admiration to Randi Rhodes for several years and believe she is one of the better informed personalities on the public media – but, felt as if she was talking to me when she called callers to her talk show “stupid” because they were unhappy with the President.  In my view, as stated many times here, THERE’S A LOT TO BE UNHAPPY WITH!

I “get” the argument that if we don’t support Obama the alternative is the Republicans.  And, I’ve felt for some time that Obama’s administration has taken the tactic that just letting the Republicans implode would be enough to get support from the “left” as he directs most of his decisionmaking toward the “right.”  Yes, it’s a darned sight better than the previous administration, BUT THAT’S NOT SAYING MUCH.  To me, the argument that Obama is better than Bush is a non-starter.  I can’t think of a single candidate – well, yes I can – Sarah Palin – who would be worse than Bush (OK, McCain, Pawlenty, Romney, there’s a bunch who would be terribly bad – including GW’s brother Jeb) – it would almost be impossible to be worse than Bush.  Most candidates, whether Republican or Democrat, would have some of the best interests of the American people in mind – which would make them better than Bush.  But, just the topic of being “better than Bush” gets me to the MAIN GRIPE I’ve had since Obama first stepped into the White House.

George Bush and Dick Cheney are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the deaths of – by many accounts -over one million people because of their misadventure into Iraq.  President Obama is essentially carrying out the “Bush doctrine” in Iraq.  I’m sure people like Rhodes would say the withdrawal has begun – which is true – but, the end result of the “withdrawal” from Iraq will be 50-75,000 “non-combat” American forces still stationed there.  The multi-billion dollar American embassy is not going to be left “wanting” for occupancy anytime soon.  If our generals have their way, we’ll have a significant force in Iraq for a generation.  Obama seemingly doesn’t have the “guts” to follow through on his campaign promise to remove the troops within 16 months of taking office.  Not only is President Obama continuing the Bush doctrine in Iraq he essentially enabled their lies and incompetence by blocking any investigation of the Bush/Cheney administration.

Republicans are still claiming that torture is OK – that, despite all the FACTS pointing to torture producing NO ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE torture is necessary to keep our nation “safe.”  Of course, there’s millions more – in my “humble” (well, OK, not so humble) opinion who agree with me that Bush, Cheney, and anyone else responsible for the heinous torturing (which led to many murders) during the Afganistan and Iraq fiascos MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.  This is not only for the long term good of our nation – making a statement that this behavior is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE in America – but also for our standing with the rest of the world.  Whether we like it or not, we are the “leaders” of the “free world” and THIS WAS NOT A GOOD EXAMPLE to set!  Obama’s decision to look the other way will go down in history as a far worse decision than when the Trailblazers (Portland’s NBA team) drafted Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan.  It’s probably too late for him to change his mind – but, this decision was just a forerunner of what we were getting from our “progressive” President.

I heard the list of 90 accomplishments of Obama’s first year “the media doesn’t report” again today while driving around and listening to the radio – well, actually just heard some of them, but I’ve heard the list before – and, it’s true there are some accomplishments.  But, I would argue that there’s another side to many of these “accomplishments” – and, from a progressive point of view – that can be argued.  I’m not even suggesting taking on the “tea bagger’s” arguments, or the arguments of the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, and their ilk.  I’ve personally written all those people off – the only thing they’ve PROVED to me is that if their lips are moving, they’re lying.  In fact, as I’m writing this, I believe that after the enabling of the Bush crimes the thing that bothers me the most about our President is that he’s even negotiating with these thugs.  We had had enough of them when we voted him in, and weren’t looking for someone to worry about what they thought of the proposed solutions to the “Bush mess.”

The reality of Obama’s first year to me is that MILLIONS of Americans are out of work and our new administration seems to be all talk and no action when it comes to REAL solutions to the problem of unemployment.  And, I can guarantee you when they use the excuse of this health care legislation as the reason for no significant ADDITIONAL stimulus (to the insuffiecient stimulus package passed earlier in the year) IT’S NOT GOING TO FLY with millions of Americans.  And, when the working “stiffs” in this country who have been keeping the union movement afloat find out that the healthcare packages they’ve sacrificed wages for in tough negotiations are going to be taxed if the Senate health care bill becomes law – OBAMA’S GOING TO LOSE A LOT OF SUPPORT IN THE UNION MOVEMENT.  And, when the 40 MILLION Americans who are going to be forced to buy health insurance from the very companies who are presently ripping off the system – there’s going to be a lot of unhappy “progressive” campers on that one as well.  I’m glad President Obama trusts the health insurance companies to lower their rates after this bill goes through – forgive me – but I don’t trust them AT ALL!  I would prefer there was not trust at all in this bill – if the government had stuck to their guns (maybe with enough of a backlash they still will) on the public option and actually made it available to ALL AMERICANS – then you’d see progressives excited and mobilizing for the next “fight.”  There would actually be reason to believe the insurance companies would be facing REAL COMPETITION and our government was serious about reform.

One of Obama’s 90 accomplishments is that he’s “starting to get us out of Iraq.”  To me, his lack of willingness to show courage regarding Iraq (Most of our troops should be home already and ALL should be coming home – within the 16 months he PROMISED!) ranks right up there with his biggest failings.  And, the escalation of the Afganistan occupation is a gamble that could be even more devastating to the United States of America.  I think I understand the reasoning behind the move – but, it was definitely the “easy way out.”  I believe, personally, that we could bring our troops home and still not “abandon” Afganistan.  The $65 BILLION we’re going to spend on this newest “surge” (along with the money we’d be saving had Obama kept his promise to bring the troops home from Iraq) would do wonders in stabilizing Afganistan – and there are many who believe this could be done without a bunch of US troops over there killing people.  If I actually believed there would be a concerted effort to neutralize al Qaeda, it would make more sense to me (although we shouldn’t need the additional 50,000 troops Obama’s now committed to Afganistan to do that) – us remaining in Afganistan, but the Afgan people don’t want us there and it seems that Obama may be defying history thinking he can “nation-build” in the place often referred to as the “graveyard of empires.”

Finally, we hear about Rahm Emanuel making comments like “we don’t have to worry about the liberals,” Randi Rhodes calling progressives who disagree with Obama “stupid,” and Obama himself questioning members of Congress as to why they’re not happy with him (John Conyers for one – I’m sure there are others).  This attitude is going to be exactly what the Republicans will need to get rejuvenated.  THEY SHOULD BE HISTORY.  But, leave it to the Democrats to, in my opinion, be the ones who are “stupid.”  There are many more besides myself who will either sit out the next election or vote for something other than a Democrat.  I’m an independent and I voted straight Democrat the last time to send a message to the Republicans (obviously, they didn’t get the message – but neither, evidently, did the Democrats).  Ralph Nader is looking better and better to me.  The truth is that I’m getting up there in years, I don’t have the energy to become involved in the Democratic party to “change it from the inside” as some have suggested, and I continue to look for leadership that I can trust.  When I voted for Obama I had the upmost respect for him (still do in a lot of ways).  I’m choosing to believe the problems are coming from the people he’s surrounded himself with.  As soon as he chose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff I went “uh oh!”  And, nothing has happened to change my mind about that problem since.

And, how is Wall Street going to be re-regulated when Obama’s two economic advisors were right in the middle of the de-regulation which caused the meltdown.  I believe that both Geithner and Summers have ties to Goldman Sachs which, while maybe not as strong as Hank Paulsen’s, are such that they should have been disqualified for their respective positions.  And, nothing that’s happened since Obama took over has caused me to change my mind on that “red flag” either.  In fact, I believe it’s probably Emanuel who’s giving Obama the advice that’s liable to get him in further “hot water” with the true progressives.  President Obama’s not only acting “Bushlike” in too many ways, he’s defending Bush abuses in court (such as the state’s secret claims Bush made in order to keep his illegal activities from the public).  Two of the things I felt were non-negotiables that we would get with Barack Obama as President were transparency and honesty.  If I could talk to the President in person I would ask: President Obama: how is defending “state’s secrets” transparency and claiming you didn’t promise the “public option” honesty?  (his promise of the public option is on tape, I’m sure)  I want President Obama to succeed enough, that I’m going to keep writing, because I’m convinced that at the present rate he will be a one term President.