[Warning: Some swearing]
I campaigned for him in '08. And I was deliriously happy when someone named Barack Hussein Obama actually got elected as president. Like a lot of people on Kos, I hoped that we were at the cusp of a new New Deal. A progressive resurgence.
But then, over the past two and a half years, I've watched with growing disappointment as Obama repeatedly sold out progressive principles in favor of big business and the military-industrial complex. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that in areas that really matter -- y'know, the basic health of the democracy in the republic -- Obama is not much better than Bush. Obama has not indicted a single bank exec for the '08 economic collapse. Obama has refused to roll back the civil liberty abuses of the Bush administration and in some cases expanded the abuses (hello Pornoscanners). But what broke the camels back for me is his assertion this weekend that the obvious torture of Bradley Manning was "appropriate." Who the fuck is this guy? Not the one I helped get elected.
The immediate response when I say that I'm not voting for Obama is '12 is that I'll be handing the presidency to Sarah Palin or whatever bed-crapping, mouth-breathing neanderthal that the Republicans manage to nominate. And that might be the case. But I'm getting sick of being forced to choose between a crazed lunatic and a duplicitous jerk who holds liberals in contempt. It's the different between voting for shit-flavored curry and curry-favored shit. I don't want either of them.
There are 300 million people in the country and if the polls are to be believed, most people want more government spending on social programs. They want the cut the out-of-control military budget. And, though I haven't seen any polls on it, I suspect that most Americans would prefer the TSA to stop touching their junk. There's got to be someone out there who's willing to represent, as Howard Dean said, the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. Maybe Howard Dean. I hope he runs. If not, I'm voting for FDR's zombified corpse.