[Marxism] Cockburn on Obama

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Counterpunch Weekend Edition
February 13 - 15, 2009
CounterPunch Diary
On the Rocks

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

I write these words at the end of a week in which:

A new Democratic president, Barack Obama, via his Attorney General, has 
explicitly endorsed Bush's policy on renditions and refusal to recognize 
the jurisdiction of US courts in any legal proceedings in this regards; 
a week in which Obama’s solicitor general has explicitly endorsed 
Bush’s policy on enemy combatants.

I write not long after the New York Times  reported that state welfare 
rolls are actually shrinking in months when unemployment has risen to 
real totals of 17 and 18 per cent - 1.7 million in Dec and Jan. This is 
a consequence of a former Democratic president, Bill Clinton's "reform" 
of welfare in the mid-90s.

Back then, Clinton reached out in the spirit of bipartisanship to 
Republicans to effect this piece of legislative savagery. In the same 
spirit of bipartisanship Obama invited a New Hampshire right-winger, 
Judd Gregg, to be his Commerce Secretary, while simultaneously pledging 
that Judd’s vacated seat would be filled by… a Republican!  Ultimately, 
Judd contemptuously kicked away the proffered hand of friendship.

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn02132009.html

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