From Dave Winer
First, the conservative pundits who say that Obama turned his back on the extreme left by voting for the new FISA bill have it wrong. He turned his back on people of all persuasions who believe in our form of government.
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He was right if he assumed he had our vote. I will not vote for McCain to prove this point. But I’m also not going to give him any more money. I’m going to save that for causes I believe in.I no longer believe there is a cause to Obama other than getting Obama elected. It’s up to him now to prove otherwise. The FISA vote can be undone, but he has to actually do the undoing.
Dave Winer is a gifted programmer and conceptualizer who played a major role in the development of RSS and podcasting. He can alternately be brilliant and infuriating. This post, IMO, is one of his best and is why people read him.
Even Hillary voted against FISA. But Obama voted for it. Why? Maybe to out-right McCain so he won’t be called soft on terrorism or as an attempt to grab what he perceives as the center. Whatever the reasons, it was cynical and manipulative and makes one wonder, just what does Obama believe in, given that he’s currently reversing previously stated views seemingly as fast as he possibly can.
Maybe he’s just another triangulating Slick Willie. But he’s quite correct. The Left will vote for him anyway. And I’ll take a Slick Willie over the neocons any day. For one thing, Obama gets it about renewable energy and global warming.
Sure, I’ll take a Slick Willie over another warmonger too, but I suspect the danger is from the disillusionment of his base: sure, we ain’t gonna vote for McCain, but we may not vote at all. Why is it that the Repubs can have a hardcore movement guy elected (not once but twice if you count Reagan), but any Democrat has to be a centrist? Why can’t we just have a progressive run as a progressive for a change?
Eminence Grise – agreed. Watching Obama “tack to the center” as they like to put it has been nothing short of infuriating. It pissed me off when Kerry did it… denying that he was a Lib’ral…. if it were me, I would’ve looked directly into the nearest camera and said, “Heck yea, I’m a Liberal. Is there a problem?”