"I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs." "I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking." "Hey, wait a minute, there's one guy holding out both puppets!" - Bill Hicks
Clinton is the puppet on the left. McCain is the puppet on the right. Big money is the guy holding out the puppets. Sure, we'll take the puppet on the left if that's the best we can do. If that is all we are left with.
In case you haven't been paying attention we are at war. No, I don't mean the Middle East. I mean the ongoing war between the haves and the have nots. After the system crashed last time (Great Depression, anyone?) we, the masses, gained ground - unions, Social Security, The G.I. Bill - pretty much any populist pro-middle class support you can think of was part of the rebuilding efforts.
The haves began to claw their way back in the 1970's and really started to roll during the so-called "Reagan Revolution". Little by little regulations put in place to prevent another melt down were stripped away, including the Glass-Steagall Act which Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress abolished in 1999.
There is an enormous ocean of bad debt in the system now - the result of deregulation and lack of oversight - and the haves will do anything they can to see that the have nots get the final bill.
What does this have to do with Obama and the change of tone in the MSM?
Obama is one of three Senators who introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act. This act, were it to become law, would give U.S. regulators more power to go after offshore tax cheats, would close certain loopholes, and would increase penalties against tax shelter promoters. The Act is getting press in Europe, but if it weren't for Elaine Supkis most likely I, and therefore many of you, would have never heard about it.
Elaine posits in her blog that the introduction of this Act is behind the sudden change in tone of U.S. press coverage of Obama. Elaine has a colorful style and a distinct view point.
The news about Obama going after the pirates in the Cayman Islands is big news...in Europe. I wondered about the sudden flurry of media attacks on him this last week. Well, now we know! He is attacking the Derivative Beast's hidden treasure coves!
I read her entry a few days ago and didn't think much on it until today when I saw two editorials in the New York Times essentially praising Clinton and dogging Obama.
Paul Krugman
More broadly, I suspect that the Obama mystique — his carefully created image as a transformational, even transcendent figure — has created a backlash among those unconvinced that he’s interested in the nuts-and-bolts work of fixing things. Ohio voters were more likely to say that Mr. Obama inspires them — but more likely to say that Mrs. Clinton has a clear plan for the country’s problems.
David Brooks
Besides, the real softness of the campaign is not that Obama is a wimp. It’s that he has never explained how this new politics would actually produce bread-and-butter benefits to people in places like Youngstown and Altoona.
Could they play any more neatly into the Clinton meme that Obama is just a fine orator with no substance? Why are the knives out? Because Obama is trying to reign in the haves.