bobbyw24
12-10-2009, 05:45 AM
Barack Obama leaves liberals broken-hearted
How can he accept the Nobel peace prize and yet refuse to sign the landmine ban?
By Alexander Cockburn
A friend down the coast here in California called Wednesday to say that her mother Grace, 95, had fallen, cracked her ribs and told her daughters, "That's it. I'm checking out." She's given up eating. I remembered all the arguments I'd had down the years with the old lady – a perennial optimist about Democrats when it came to assessing the likelihood that Carter, or Clinton or Obama would ever actually serve up the progressive banquets they'd pledged on the campaign trail.
"Tell your mother that at least she won't have to put up with me saying 'I told you so, about Obama'," I said. Her daughter gave a deep, sad sigh. She too has been a loyal liberal Democrat all her life and now, she said, Obama was breaking her heart. So many high hopes, and here's a man accepting the Novel peace prize with one hand, while signing deployment orders with the other, sending 30,000 more young soldiers to Afghanistan.
Here's a man who can't even toss the progressives the one peanut a year they need to keep them happy. Obama's refusal on the eve of Thanksgiving a fortnight ago to sign the US on to the landmine ban was the breaking-point for many.
The American Medical Association did a study saying that an estimated 24,000 people, mainly civilians, are killed or ripped apart by landmines and "unexploded ordinance" (cluster bombs) each year across the world. Mostly the victims are the rural poor, many of them children. As a senator, Barack Obama voted for the ban; as president, he's against it.
With Obama there is a disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/57238,news-comment,news-politics,barack-obama-leaves-liberals-broken-hearted-over-landmines
How can he accept the Nobel peace prize and yet refuse to sign the landmine ban?
By Alexander Cockburn
A friend down the coast here in California called Wednesday to say that her mother Grace, 95, had fallen, cracked her ribs and told her daughters, "That's it. I'm checking out." She's given up eating. I remembered all the arguments I'd had down the years with the old lady – a perennial optimist about Democrats when it came to assessing the likelihood that Carter, or Clinton or Obama would ever actually serve up the progressive banquets they'd pledged on the campaign trail.
"Tell your mother that at least she won't have to put up with me saying 'I told you so, about Obama'," I said. Her daughter gave a deep, sad sigh. She too has been a loyal liberal Democrat all her life and now, she said, Obama was breaking her heart. So many high hopes, and here's a man accepting the Novel peace prize with one hand, while signing deployment orders with the other, sending 30,000 more young soldiers to Afghanistan.
Here's a man who can't even toss the progressives the one peanut a year they need to keep them happy. Obama's refusal on the eve of Thanksgiving a fortnight ago to sign the US on to the landmine ban was the breaking-point for many.
The American Medical Association did a study saying that an estimated 24,000 people, mainly civilians, are killed or ripped apart by landmines and "unexploded ordinance" (cluster bombs) each year across the world. Mostly the victims are the rural poor, many of them children. As a senator, Barack Obama voted for the ban; as president, he's against it.
With Obama there is a disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/57238,news-comment,news-politics,barack-obama-leaves-liberals-broken-hearted-over-landmines