So says Frank Rich. And I find it hard to disagree.
I voted for Barack Obama because I thought he would be better for the economy, ending the war, safer food, and better health care.
I still believe that he was a better choice than the alternative. But I’m also reminded why I voted 3rd party in so many previous elections. The differences between Republicans and Democrats are not as great as many want to believe.
Sure, we may have gotten a better Supreme Court Justice with Sotomayor than we would have gotten with McCain. But it isn’t like Sotomayor is a liberal.
On so many issues, I’m not convinced Obama is doing much different than McCain would have done. With Obama at the helm, the left is muted on so many issues that were important to use during the campaign.
No corporations played a larger role in bringing the world economy to its knees than AIG and Goldman Sachs. So who does Obama put in charge of running our economy? Goldman Sachs hacks, Larry Summers (top economic adviser) and Tim Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury) are put in charge of printing money and handing it out as bonuses to Goldman Sachs’ executives.
Seriously, do we really expect significant tax reform? Appointing Martin Feldstein to the his Task Force on Tax Reform is not encouraging. For the past 21 years, Feldman was on the board of American International Group (AIG). He was economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Reform?
One of the major reasons I supported Obama was because I believed he would bring our troops home. And this is personal as one of my nephews is about to deploy to the Middle East. But rather than getting our military out of the Middle East, Obama moves more troops into Afghanistan resulting in the largest number of U.S. troops killed since the war started. Can we say, LBJ?
The vast majority of diaries for the past couple of weeks have been about health insurance reform. The bottom line is we are not going to get significant reform. Single payer is dead. A good public option is on life support. And now we learn Obama made a secret deal with Big Pharma to keep drug prices high.
Nor should we expect improvement in what health professionals call "up stream" health measures. Good food is critical for good health. Oops! Not going to happen. Obama appoints Monsanto lackeys, Tom Vilsack and Michael Taylor to oversee our food.
Money rules!