The Third Clinton Administration
Ralph Nader
Counterpunch
November 22, 2008
While the liberal intelligentsia was swooning over Barack Obama during
his presidential campaign, I counseled "prepare to be disappointed." His record
as a Illinois state and U.S. Senator, together with the many progressive and
long overdue courses of action he opposed during his campaign, rendered such a
prediction unfortunate but obvious.
The signs are amassing that Barack Obama put a political con job
over on the American people. He is now daily buying into the entrenched
military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned Americans about in
his farewell address.
Now this same intelligentsia is beginning to howl over Obama's transition
team and early choices to run his Administration. Having defeated Senator
Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primaries, he now is busily installing Bill
Clinton's old guard. Thirty one out of forty seven people that he has named so
far for transition or appointments have ties to the Clinton Administration,
according to Politico. One Clintonite is quoted in the Washington Post as
saying - "This isn't lightly flavored with Clintons. This is all Clintons, all
the time."
Obama's "foreign policy team is now dominated by the Hawkish, old-guard
Democrats of the 1990," writes Jeremy Scahill. Obama's transition team
reviewing intelligence agencies and recommending appointments is headed by John
Brennan and Jami Miscik, who worked under George Tenet when the CIA was
involved in politicizing intelligence for, among other officials, Secretary of
State Colin Powell's erroneous address before the United Nations calling for
war against Iraq.
Mr. Brennan, as a government official, supported warrantless wiretapping
and extraordinary rendition to torturing countries. National Public Radio
reported that Obama's reversal when he voted for the revised FISA this year
relied on John Brennan's advise.
For more detail on these two advisers and others recruited by Obama from
the dark old days, see Democracy Now, November 17, 2008 and Jeremy Scahill,
AlterNet, Nov. 20, 2008 "This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to
Watch for in Obama's White House."
The top choice as White House chief of staff is Rahm Emanuel-the ultimate
hard-nosed corporate Democrat, military-foreign policy hawk and Clinton White
House promoter of corporate globalization, as in NAFTA and the World Trade
Organization.
Now, recall Obama's words during the bucolic "hope and change" campaign
months: "The American people.understand the real gamble is having the same old
folks doing things over and over and over again and somehow expecting a
different result." Thunderous applause followed these remarks.
"This is more 'Groundhog Day' then a fresh start," asserted Peter Wehner,
a former Bush adviser who is now at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The signs are amassing that Barack Obama put a political con job over on
the American people. He is now daily buying into the entrenched
military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned Americans about in
his farewell address.
With Robert Rubin on his side during his first photo opportunity after
the election, he signaled to Wall Street that his vote for the $750 billion
bailout of those speculators and crooks was no fluke (Rubin was Clinton's
financial deregulation architect in 1999 as Secretary of the Treasury before he
became one of the hugely paid co-directors tanking Citigroup.)
Obama's apologists say that his picks show he wants to get things done,
so he wants people who know their way around Washington. Moreover, they say,
the change comes only from the president who sets the priorities and the
courses of action, not from his subordinates. This explanation assumes that a
president's appointments are not mirror images of the boss's expected
directions but only functionaries to carry out the Obama changes.
If you are inclined to believe this improbable scenario, perhaps you may
wish to review Obama's record compiled by Matt Gonzalez at Counterpunch.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"<<onepixel.gif>>
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