Obama: FDR or Clinton II?

Does this sound familiar: A Democratic presidential candidate campaigns on a progressive platform of "change" including universal health care, taking on corporate interests and lobbyists, defending labor and the "middle class," and after winning the election moves to the right and backtracks on the progressive platform he ran on.

Bill Clinton ran as a progressive populist, but governed as a "centrist" Republican. He pushed NAFTA, "welfare reform" (the end of welfare as we knew it), and backtracked on his promise to lift the ban on gays in the military and before the end of his first term proclaimed "the era of big government is over" and jumped on the "family values" bandwagon by endorsing the anti-gay "Defense of Marriage Act" to get re-elected.

Clinton was elected after a long decade of Reagan/Bush conservative Republican rule. We (progressives, gays, etc.) celebrated his election. Then we watched as one by one we were thrown under the bus: gays, labor, the poor, etc.

It seems to be happening again! I hope I'm wrong, but the Obama "transition" is starting to look like a replay of the Clinton betrayal of the progressive base of the Democratic Party.

First, Obama's choice of Rahm Emanuel, now his apparent choice of neo-liberal hawk Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State (a choice applauded by Republicans, NOT progressive Democrats!), and the appeasement of traitor Joe Lieberman (who left the Democratic Party to form his own party!), it looks like "the left has been foiled again," in the words of one Democratic Senate aide.

Democratic leaders in Congress seem to relish any opportunity to piss off their own base to be "bipartisan". House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reject any progressive mandate from the voters and distance themselves from the Left. It's looking like Obama may catch this anti-Left disease that has spread throughout the Democratic Party establishment in Washington D.C.

Maybe Obama is being political smart by embracing his former adversaries, or maybe his is being politically naive. Lieberman campaign for Obama's Republican opponent and joined with the right-wing nuts who called Obama a Marxist! Hillary Clinton began the racist attacks questioning Obama's patriotism, experience and religious beliefs! How can Obama just forget about these things? Bill Clinton had a unhealthy need to be loved and liked by everyone and he went too far in appeasing Republicans and his political enemies. I hope Obama learned something from Clinton's mistakes, but it doesn't look like it. You cannot please everyone in politics, and you have to be willing to stand up to your enemies!

WILL OBAMA FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF FDR OR BILL CLINTON? THINK BIG Obama!

David Sirota: Why Are the Democratic Leaders At War with the Democratic Left?

What Should Democrats Do Now?

David Greenwald: The Mind of the Democratic Leadership

America is a Center-Left Country No Matter How Much the Corporate Media Say Otherwise!

Normon Solomon: Obama Has A Mandate to Spread the Wealth

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