Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

Barack Obama, a.k.a. Barack ”All options on the table” Obama, or “Senator Slither” is making a strong showing in the American presidential race. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that very few actually know what he stands for. However, on one issue, this changed last week. While in the past, he has been known to be highly critical of US policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians, in last week’s trip to Hollywood (where he pandered to prominent pro-Israel zealots) and his recent address to AIPAC he has confirmed his stance on at least one issue: Israel. According Ha’aretz’s US Correspondent, Shmuel Rosner, when it comes to Israel, he is “as strong as Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Giuliani. At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel. Period.”

So far I have met many who are enthusiastic about Obama’s bid for the presidency. They all seem to have one thing in common: they don’t know what his stand on anything is. I therefore have decided to introduce the Senator to his would-be supporters. Following are some of the key issues of the day, and lets see what the progressive candidate’s stand is on them.

On Iraq

Obama did not vote for the war, since he wasn’t in the Senate at the time, and by virtue of his sporadic criticism of Bush, he is assumed to be against the war. However, his position is not dissimilar to Bush’s, they both want “victory” in Iraq.

On November 22, 2005, shortly after John Murtha had introduced a motion calling for an immediate end to US occupation of Iraq, Obama delivered a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations where he asserted: “We need to focus our attention on how to reduce the US military footprint in Iraq. Notice that I say ‘reduce,’ and not ‘fully withdraw.’…2006 should be the year that…the various Iraqi factions must arrive at a fair political accommodation to defeat the insurgency; and…the Administration must make available to Congress critical information on reality-based benchmarks that will help us succeed in Iraq.”

During the 2006 mid-term elections, Obama helped fundraise for the pro-War hawk, Joe Lieberman, Bush’s closest Democratic Party ally, against the antiwar Ned Lemont.

Obama has described US policy in Iraq as “coddling” Iraqis, “His Iraq War De-escalation Act, carefully calibrated to make him appear slightly less belligerent than Hillary Clinton, allows the U.S. to wage war until March 31, 2008, at the very least, and to maintain a military presence in the country thereafter.”

Of the fourteen of his senate colleagues for whom his PAC, the Hopefund, is raising money ten are DLC (the right-wing faction within the Democratic Party), according to BlackCommentator.

While Obama is a proponent of Healthcare reform, he remains opposed to the cutting of funds which are draining the American treasury of $2 Billion a week.

On Iran

Obama has been a cheerleader for the nuke-Iran crowd since 2004, however, he has gone further than any other Democrat or Republican in suggesting an attack on Pakistan as well. On September 26, 2004, he told the Chicago Tribune, “[L]aunching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in” given the ongoing war in Iraq. “On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse.” Obama went on to argue that military strikes on Pakistan should not be ruled out if “violent Islamic extremists” were to “take over.”

On Civil Liberties

Obama, the constitutional law professor, also refused to vote for Senator Russell Feingold’s motion to censure Bush over NSA evesdropping on citizens, declaring: “my and Senator Feingold’s view is not unanimous. Some constitutional scholars and lower court opinions support the president’s argument that he has inherent authority to go outside the bounds of the law in monitoring the activities of suspected terrorists. The question is whether the president understood the law and knowingly flaunted it.” 

Obama voted for the final passage of the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act, even though ten of his Democratic colleagues voted against it.

On Human Rights

His committment to Human Rights is also questionable as he was quick to distance himself from his colleague Dick Durbin when he criticized the conditions at Guantanamo. Five months after major demonstrations in support of immigrant rights, Obama joined rightwing Republicans and Democrats in voting to authorize the construction of a 700-mile-long wall along the US-Mexico border.

On Big Business

Obama voted for Tort Reform, one of corporat America’s most sought after pieces of legislation, that makes it difficult for citizens to bring class action suits against corporate offenders.

On Political Minorities

George Carlin once joked that Colin Powell is “openly white”, but only “happens to be black”. Today the statement would be just as appropriate for Obama. While he has tried to court the Black vote in his trips to Selma and his attempts to appropriate the legacy of MLK, his real target remain American Whites. He alienated many Black’s when he started distancing himself from his spiritual mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. for holding “too Afrocentric” a view. He did not attend the recent State of the Black Union.

In the Black Commentator, former Black Panther Larry Pinkney writes:

Obama could and should have learned some valuable lessons from the examples set by black American US Presidential candidates who were his forerunners. Unlike Obama, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton never sought to distance themselves from black America, as did Obama, as demonstrated by his absence from the recent State of the Black Union 2007 conference. What is Obama’s position on the issue of perpetual unequal justice, racial profiling, and the massively disproportionate rate of incarceration affecting the vast majority of Black and other people of colour in this nation?

For his efforts, Senator Joseph Biden declared him the first “clean” African American public figure.

On Healthcare

While Obama is a proponent of Universal Health Insurance, he is opposed to Single-Payer system because it will ring the death knell for the private health insurance industry and reduce profits of Big Pharma. This despite the fact that the majority of Americans, Doctors and and a large number of Hosptial CEOs support the Single Payer system.

Someone had recently described Obama’s book as ”But the book is like those two solid yellow lines on a two-lane mountain road. They’re just there in the middle and never-ending, with a stop sign as the only relief. But Alexander Cockburn sums it up best:

In his political advance, chest now ablaze with all the usual medals from the opinion formers for “pragmatism,” Obama is divesting himself of all legitimate claims to be any sort of popular champion, as opposed to being another safe black, like Condoleezza Rice, whom Obama voted to confirm. The Empire relishes such servants.