Sure, Barack Obama is better than George Bush and Juan McCain, but let’s not forget that Obama wants to significantly expand the War On Terror ™ in Afghanistan, Obama supports the illegal (well, was illegal) wiretapping of Americans, Obama called for Jerusalem to be the undivided capital of Israel (not even the Republicans went that far), Obama is talking about spending more on the military, and Obama is the favored candidate of crooks and liars like Colin Powell.
Many people voted for Barack Obama symbolically as a black man, but that is called racism. He's not MLK, he's not Jesse Jackson, he's not Fred Hampton (I don't think any of those guys would have been pro military, pro war, pro death penalty). He’s just another millionaire in a long line of millionaires to take the office.
What is Obama’s real value then? As a few astute folks I know pointed out when we were discussing Obama’s many shortcomings, he was the only candidate that could put a spit polish on the tired old illusion of the American Dream and resell it to an American populous ready to revolt, thus pacifying them yet again.
I hope I am wrong, I hope the American president that raised more money than any other in history will be the revolutionary America needs, but it does not look good.
It's key that we keep the pressure on Obama to deliver on the progressive promises that got him to this point. I don't trust many of the "liberal" pundits and personalities (like Olbermann) to do this, since many are wedded to Obama the same way the neocon pundits were wedded to Bush, and could not defy him as he went further off course.
It's up to US, but we're going to have to stop this juvenile worship of the new Alpha Male rising in the pack to lead us, and remember that WE are the leaders.