Reply #513: I'm certainly not justifying Obama's right-wing politics and I absolutely agree

[Douglas Carpenter]

that the 46% would be about the same even if Obama had pushed a considerably more progressive agenda. He truly did miss the boat - to put it mildly - when after winning a mandate for change and right after a major economic collapse that made that mandate unassailable he did nothing to redefine the debate - absolutely nothing. The opportunity was presented to him on a silver platter and he chose Wall Street sycophant politics as usual instead. His Wall Street backers and their cronies in the media knew that from the very beginning - long before he entered the race - that was exactly what he would do. Even I knew it. Every political observer who wasn't utterly naive knew that. Neither Sen. Obama or anyone else would have ever, ever, ever been taken seriously as a credible candidate if they thought for one single second that they were a threat to established power. Like Dr. West, I hoped in vain that he would have at least some progressive instincts - but ultimately I knew better. His record in the Senate and even a cursory observation of his words beyond a few populist cliches spoke otherwise. He would not have been treated by the mainstream media as a plausible candidate if he was truly progressive. He would have been completely marginalized from the beginning.