You know why many people don't trust Obama?

[markpkessinger]

20. "choosing the best choice of many bad choices" -- on NAFTA? on TPP?

There have certainly been some cases where it can be said of both Obama and Clinton that they had to make the best choice among a set of bad choices. For one example of this, take Clinton's agreement to sign DOMA. Republicans were threatening to introduce a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman. There was serious concern at that time that such an amendment may well have passed. And if it had, we would have had a much, much higher -- likely impossible -- hurdle to get over on the issue of gay marriage than we have had. So Clinton agreed to sign DOMA as part of a deal with Republican legislators that they would not pursue the constitutional amendment option. And thank God he did -- even though that law was despised by many of us, including me.

HOWEVER . . .

It isn't as if there was some pressing requirement to enter into NAFTA, and there is no pressing requirement to enter into the TPP today. Neither of these was or is about choosing the "best of bad choices." Choosing not to enter into trade agreement simply means that things continue as they have been. And when the provisions of a prospective trade agreement are as egregious as some of those in the parts of the draft TPP that have been leaked, clearly the better choice is not to enter into such an agreement, and certainly not to fast track it.

And there are other issues, too, where it simply cannot be said of Obama that his choice was the "best among bad choices." His aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers is a good example. The Justice Department, under Obama, has embraced a strategy of prosecuting whistleblowers under the Espionage Act of 1917 -- a malicious decision that renders it virtually impossible for the accused to mount a defense -- even though there has, in most of the cases, been no evidence or even accusation of attempted espionage. There were other, lesser statutes those persons could have been rightly prosecuted under. The choice wasn't the best among bad choices" -- in fact, charging them under lesser statutes would have been a better -- and more just -- choice.

His expanded use of drones is another choice that is hard to defend as the "best" among ANY set of choices. Every drone strike creates many more long-term enemies of the U.S. than it kills.