Will Obama's FISA vote come back to bite him?
A day after the Senate signed off on controversial changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the dust hasn't quite settled on that issue. Salon feels betrayed, but National Review's not surprised at all. Michelle Malkin crows, "The heartbroken nutroots are foaming at the mouth. Hoist, meet petard. " The New York Times ed board voices its disappointment, but Top of the Ticket puts it bluntly:
That Barack Obama jog toward the political center now that he's won the Democratic nomination appears to have turned into a full-fledged dash today. And there's a lot of folks on the left side of his party that are unhappy.
But, to be Chicago kind of candid, whatcha gonna do about it?
Some point out, however, that Obama has at least been open and responsive in his thinking on the issue. Not only did he let his website host a petition asking him to reconsider, wrote the Caucus, but he even responded:
Today’s exchange also brings to mind an issue The Times’s Katharine Q. Seelye brought up in one of her recent Web columns.
“Is it possible to translate the online expertise developed during campaigns into running the federal bureaucracy?” she asked. “To take the energy that goes into manipulating voters to win elections and convert it into listening to voters and being transparent, accountable and accessible?”
A significant portion of Mr. Obama’s note addressed accountability:
I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I’m not exempt from that. I’m certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too.
But perhaps we should be asking a different question: Will this vote help Hillary Clinton, who voted against the bill? Daily Kos wonders whether she's still triangulating, and Matthew Yglesias of The Atlantic wryly observes:
I don't believe that if Clinton and Obama swapped roles that they'd be acting any differently. But the reality is that as long as Obama thinks he's going to be wielding executive authority, he's going to be useless as a check on out-of-control executive authority. If Clinton wants to channel whatever regrets she has about losing the primary into taking up that cause, well, I think that would be an excellent decision for her to make.
Cast your vote:
*Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh / EPA
I agree with Ron Meisel's post. I was a big fan of Obama's & thought he would bring much needed fresh energy into the White House. But not this way. Not by selling out our freedoms & *positioning* himself to win the Presidency. Just another "slick Willie" after all. I'm writing in Ron Paul. He won't win but I won't vote for a person I don't believe in.
Posted by: Este | July 14, 2008 at 09:28 AM
Sen. Obama voting in favor of FISA is without question a betrayal of enormous magnitude. Our Constitution is slipping through our fingers.
Unless this changes I am changing my mind about voting for Sen. Obama. His action reminds us that we cannot eradicate the corruption plaguing our government by merely voting it away in a general election.
Furthermore, I will campaign against the Democratic Party. It has failed us. Not only is impeachment off the table, but the very core of justice itself is being shoved out of the room.
I for one, want future generations to know that I spoke up and demanded impeachment proceedings of President Bush and his Neo-Con-men who signed the Project for the New American Century manifesto for world domination. They have displaced the Balance of Powers, and have usurped our Constitution.
Our laws allow impeachment, and our morality demands it. There will be no justice without impeachment, and the full restoration of our Constitution.
It's up to us to take back our "We the People!" The future is calling us to the rescue!
Posted by: Ellison Horne | July 14, 2008 at 12:29 AM
I've been a Obama supporter since the 2004 Democratic Convention and have been talking to many about how Obama is the change we need in government
I religiously wore an Obama button everywhere and since I am white I had to withstand many racist comments and insults for my support.
Unfortunately that support including my VOTE has just changed and I will probably vote for a third party candidate maybe Nader.
The reason for this is Obama's recent Congressional vote on the FISA bill.
I cannot believe Obama sold out to the corporate world and Washington Status Quo so easily.
If Obama thinks he must reposition his viewpoints closer to center he is wrong. the closer to center that he moves the more likely he is to lose the election.
Obama won the primary because Americans want CHANGE and Obama promised change.
Allowing the government to spy on us without warrants and giving immunity to the telecommunications corporations as well as voting to end the discussion on the issue is in flagrant
opposition to all the things he has been promising
Obama is a hypocrite and I will now tell everyone
I know that I have changed my position and no longer support Obama.
I wish I would of voted for Hillary now because she and Schumer voted for the people of America on this important issue not in favor of policies carried out by the BUSH administration which are destroying our Constitutional Rights!
Obama needs to strengthen his spine and speak out for the people at all costs and risk.
Only in this way will he win.
Too bad he is starting to look like a Kerry rerun
If Kerry had the courage to stand up and say I will end the WAR and not espouse a surge and continued presence in Iraq he may have won but we all know history.
Obama is on the threshold of changing history but if he back pedals and panders to the conservatives he will lose.
McCain has most of the Conservative vtes already locked up we need the independents and the disenfranchised to rise and take this country back.
From Obama's vote on FISA i can see that he is not up to the task now.
I am mortified now about the future of the United States of America and though i have merely considered moving to Canada, I now think that it is a decision I must consider very seriously.
Obama is a weak willed sell-out and America will not elect him if he continues to make hypocritical votes on the Congressional floor.
My Obama button is now entering the garbage can as
I end this letter
Goodbye and Good Riddance Obama!
Posted by: Ron Meisels | July 11, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Hope and Change meets More of the Same.
Posted by: Tom Kingsley | July 11, 2008 at 04:02 AM