Part One

Back in the post-McCarthy, cold war days, I came to regard Jack Kennedy as potentially more dangerous than Nixon. Nixon had a face not even a mother could love. I remember pictures of the man being circulated, with the caption, "Would you buy a used car from this man?" 

Jack on the other hand had a line of bull that could "sell skunks for good ratters." Nixon went down in flames partially because no one could even look at him without believing he had to be a crook.

Kennedy was worshiped as a god and, had he lived, we would still be in Vietnam – loving every minute of it.  But perhaps I oversimplify….

I was critical of Obama from the outset and opposed him with my support for a number of other, better-qualified candidates who both represented my feelings of the need for a long overdue progressive agenda and my reservations about his basic honesty. 

Before I ended up voting for Obama in the primary and finally working on his campaign in the Presidential election, I supported Nader, Kucinich and Edwards in that order. 

My support for Obama was motivated more out of a "fear of" than a "love for" strategy.  In the primaries, I voted for Obama because the prospect of a Hillary Presidency scared the pants off me.

Similarly, (after a brief, violent defection after I found out Obama reneged on his promise not to threaten to nuke Iran – which some of you may have read) I decided to let myself be manipulated once again into my pathetic, fifty-year-old voting history: choosing the lesser of two evils.  If Hillary scared the pants off me, Palin/Mccain left me naked as a J-bird.

As you may have divined, I am an inveterate cynic when it comes to politics. Nevertheless, I supported Obama, hoping against hope that if I helped organize a citizen advocacy group after the election, I might be able to put pressure on the new president-elect. 

Well, since the election, things have gone from bad to worse.  I joined the MoveOn political action group in hopes of supporting their attempts to keep Obama on track with the promises he made before the election. 

Even though I still had violent disagreements with him on Iran, Israel, Afghanistan and a whole host of other issues, foreign and domestic, I still felt it might be possible to support him on those points of agreement and save the tough ones until later.

I scheduled a meeting at our local library and contacted (directly or indirectly) about a hundred people to come together to put our voices behind the only political action team that had formed that I felt was really ready to do something now (Move On). 

Four people showed up. I choose not to take this as some sort of a rejection of me or my personal hygiene. Nevertheless it does represent, I think, a post-election malaise where people feel, "Well, we elected him, so now we have solved the problem. Back to sleep."

I got into some big fights with Obama supporters after my mid-campaign change of course and renunciation of the candidate. In frustration I even was heard to say outrageously that I feared Obama might just fall (or be pushed) into a position far closer to Palin/McCain than the liberal/progressive stance we all (incorrectly?) projected upon him.

I also said that I feared the forces that have dominated the foreign and domestic policies through four (possibly more) presidents would take him captive – if they hadn't done so already. 

Impertinent asshole that I often am, I even rattled my critics' chains further by saying (only half in jest) that Palin/McCain might be the better choice because it would finally bring the whole stinking Capitalist mess down around our ears, once and for all. I swear, I had absolutely no idea that this would actually happen – before the election!

Lest the Ron Paul, Ralph Nader crowd sends up a resounding cheer over these comments, I would like to say that I have not given up on a citizen advocacy campaign to hold Obama to his promise of "A Change You Can Believe In."  Things are looking dark – extremely dark on the Obama front these days.  But as any student of history, human affairs and the plays of Samuel Beckett knows, "things always get their darkest just before death."

Most voters may be surprised to learn that his agenda for change will NOT be affecting the financial, insurance, real estate and foreign policy sectors.  Some of his recently stated positions reflect this, as well as do all (?) his latest appointments and transition team members.

Daily, I scan the papers to see if one progressive, left-of-center, non-Clintonista has
been appointed to a significant position.  If you hear of one, please tell me.  Inquiring minds want to know.

Robert Boldt an editor of MWC News, is a freelance film/video producer living in Jefferson City, Missouri. He is active in local politics, worked on the Howard Dean and John Kerry campaigns and is a cofounder of The White Rose Collective. Articles by Bob Boldt at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/bob-boldt

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