Criticism of Obama from the Left I

The conventional idiocy of America's right-wing is of course that Obama is "far to the left", and a socialist. To many independent leftists and progressives this is simply not the case. So just to get myself in a posting habit, I thought I would start linking to some critical articles of Obama from the left. There are many out there, but they rarely get any mainstream attention. This is actually quite revealing in that the criticism of Obama one hears on the radio and other mainstream sources help shape the perception that Obama is more progressive than he is.

Anyway, I liked this article by Mike Whitney at Dissident Voice for several reasons. First it addresses the appeal of Obama both nationally and internationally as a symbol of a potentially different kind of American president. But it also suggests quite correctly in my opinion that Obama is in a sense trapped by the power structure of corporate elites that guide both domestic and international policies of the United States. Anyway here is an excerpt.

"For leftists, Obama has been a total bust. He’s escalated the war in Afghanistan, increased the cross-border bombings of Pakistan, hemmed and hawed about prosecuting war crimes, refused to actively lobby House members to make it easier for workers to organize (EFCA), and surrounded himself with bank industry reps who’ve committed $12.8 trillion to sinking financial institutions with no assurance that the money would be repaid. Apart from a trifling bill on stem cells, Obama has done absolutely zero to confirm his bone fides as a liberal. The truth is, Obama is neither liberal nor conservative; he’s simply an inspiring orator and a skillful politician who has no strong convictions about anything. If he achieves greatness, it will be because he was thrust into a crisis he couldn’t avoid and reluctantly acted in the best interests of the American people. That possibility still exists, although it seems more unlikely by the day."