So much hope, dashed so soon.
No Change, No Hope
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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To be fair, he doesn't take office for another 50 days.
To be fair:
1. He hasn't appointed one liberal to a key position in his Administration. Not one.
2. He hasn't proposed a massive infrastructure and mortgage rescue program big enough to address the scale of the current Depression.
3. He wants to increase the number of troops losing in Afghanistan.
4. He's being quiet about Guantánamo and torture and the GWOT–not good signs.
To be fair.
Results, Ted, Results!!! Change, like Death, comes from above. This is trickle-down change, it's Obamanomics! Did you expect it to be YOUR change?
Don't worry.
He'll balance the budget and create a surplus for the next republican.
Dude, give Obama some time. He has to change 28 years of right-wing policy.
How? With his right-wing staffers?
In other news, Ted, [and everybody], I think we finally have an answer to Ted's dilemma about why we don't rain fiery death down on the Somali Pirates —
…because it's an economic growth opportunity!
Blackwater Exploiting Piracy
…a growth opportunity if you're a Blackwater shareholder, that is. Remember, there ain't nothin' the government can do that private contractors couldn't do much better, according to the prevailing ideology.
I don't think they are that right-wing (except for Gates). They might not be as liberal as you or I, but they aren't right-wingers. Obama also has a Democratic congress to pass legislation.
For your point about Afghanistan, I don't think any viable Democratic candidate would have opposed putting in more troops, not even Edwards.
I expect Obama to announce a massive plan to battle the economic crisis by his State of the Union Address.
Ted, Obama was not my candidate of choice. I would have preferred Edwards, but had he been the Dems choice, you would be drawing Generalissimo McCaino. Think about his choices so far like this:
You have cancer. Your doctors have only made it worse for 8 years, even though they are supposed to be specialists. A radical change in treatment will increase your chances of a painful death. Do you find other cancer specialists or go to the chiropractor?
Remember, the drugs are doled out by Congress. If you endanger them, you die.
Appropriate that this comes out the day we find out that we are officially now in a recession…
And, if people begin rejecting Obama, but still remember the bad old Bush years, they may start voting for the good guys and gals, instead of the greater evils…
Don't forget, Ted, that he hasn't proposed any plan to help reform education or healthcare either.
Obama would be an absolute IDIOT if he refused to follow in Roosevelt's footsteps in regards to the economy. It would only get worse, and he would be blamed–not Bush.
Hell, even some of the rich nowadays realize that they have to pay their taxes.
Obama has this chance to prove himself a great man instead of just another failed politician a la Bill Clinton. I wonder if he'll take this chance by doing the opposite of what his so-called "advisors" tell him to.
He didn't run as a liberal, of course, he ran as a centrist. We'd hoped for more, and I still do, but he's carrying on as he'd begun.
Also: to find liberals with experience in the executive branch, he'd have to go back to the Carter administration. A lot of them lost their contacts in government during the Bush purges.
Still, I am hoping, along with many of the commenters here, that the times will make the man.