Hmmm? I wonder why people chose to leave off this part of Michael's interview

[cascadiance]

124. He can at least be known as someone who TRIED to do the right things...

... instead of giving in up front and not negotiating for public option or single payer in the health care bill, and he himself pushing the TPP behind closed doors as if that is the "change" we have wanted (NOT! which is probably why he wants fast track authority and not have even congress people be able to talk about what's in the bill that corporate leaders have helped put together).

Even though we've gone the free trade route, Ross Perot IS known for trying to fight against it, even if he was a corporate head himself and even if he did lose an election as a third party candidate, where he in fact might have even helped get Clinton elected.

I don't expect Obama to force and succeed in getting congress to do the right things with this congress we have now, but I DO expect him to try and also put them on the spot so we can replace the corporate bunch with a new generation of pols working more for the people. Then, even if he isn't able to have a success like FDR had with changing the system, he can be known as the person that helped get the ball rolling in that direction. THAT is what I want and expect from him. And I think that is what Michael Moore, Cornell West and many others who have been disappointed have been expecting. America took the risk of breaking past traditions (racist or not), to vote in a black president. They really had hopes that this would help make a difference in what we got in terms of actions that this president would take to change things for the better.

If Obama (or even subsequently Hillary Clinton if she gets elected) both still follow the same corporatist rules that keep moving our country away from democracy to corporate fascist oligarchy, whether or not they are at the core of driving that effort or not, it will be that much harder to elect another person of color or different gender in the future, if people think that it doesn't really make a difference... If they set a good prototype, it will encourage us voting for minorities and women in the future, which many of us WANT, even if those of us who criticize Obama are being dismissed as being "racist" in an oversimplified way.