Clinton was one of the 28, Obama one of the 69 I have to say than that whatever enthusiasm I felt for Obama's candidacy has been reduced by about 90%. I have not heard one argument on this issue that even begins to present a public interest argument that justifies supporting this bill.There are some issues you can fudge on. There are some issue about which reasonable people can disagree. But there are other issues, and this is one of them, where you have to stand and be counted. This was a huge test and Obama flunked miserably.
It was a big opportunity for him to make a strong leadership statement, and he punted. Worse. He took the hike and handed it off to a rushing defender giving him an easy touchdown. Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this.
But why did he cave? That's another thing I haven't heard a convincing explanation for. I don't believer this is a calculation based on concerns about electoral politics--other kinds of insider pressure were brought to bear on Obama pushing him to flip on this issue, and he did. If Clinton were the nominee she'd likely have caved, too. Her vote doesn't matter to these interests now, so she was left to vote as she pleased. But whatever those pressures might have been, it's clear that establishment interests in this critical instance are far more influential than the public interest. That's the price you pay if you want to play in the big time.
In any event it's clarifying. He has made his statement, and it's looking more and more that an Obama administration is going to be perhaps svelter, but nevertheless the same old, same old. I'll let Jonathan Turley, once again, sum up what's at stake:
UPDATE: Why does it matter so much to me? Am I over-reacting? It shouldn't be a question if you've been reading this blog over time. Either you are upset that the country is drifting toward and authoritarian surveillance state or you don't believe it is or you're ok with it or you don't care. If you don't believe it, you just haven't been paying attention or paying attention to all the wrong things. If you don't care or you're ok with it, then you don't understand what the American idea stands for. It's not that this one piece of legislation is just bad in itself. It has to be understood in the context of the accrual to the executive branch of powers that diminish the powers of the legislative branch throwing the checks and balances completely out of kilter. We no longer have a working democracy if we have presdents who move in every four or eight years who have authoritarian powers.
It's not that I think Obama is a bad guy who will abuse the powers accrued to the executive branch by his predecessors. It's future presidents I worry about. The hardcore right thinks long term. I'm convinced the Right is looking past this election, and could care less if McCain wins. Everybody thought the hardcore right was crazy for backing Goldwater in '64; it didn't care when it lost--it went to work. It built the political and media infrastructure that gave it far more political power than its numbers warranted between 1980 and 2008.
The Right is willing to lose in the short run rather than settle. It knows what it wants, and its willing to do the work required to get it. If Obama is elected, it will do everything it can to obstruct any progressive initiatives he takes, as it did to Clinton, and it will be planning all the while to take over again in '12 or '16, The so-called Left in this country offers no robust opposition to this trend. It neither has the will nor the discipline to develop a counterbalancing iinfrastructure. Too many liberals are too willing to accept such actions, despite their long-term destructive effects, because of the supposed short-term political advantages they bring.
The Right understands power and how it works. The Left since the sixties just doesn't. As I've written about frequently in this blog, the scary thing about the last eight years is the way a foundation has been laid for some future authoritarian. The PAA is another important segment of that foundation. Do you think an Obama administration is going to dismantle it? Russ Feingold on Countdown today is optimistic that it will. We can hope, but where's the evidence? His capitulation on the PAA suggests otherwise.