In a previous post i complained that Obama was not strenuously fighting the new FISA bill. I soon found out it was much worse than that; he is actually supporting it.

..wha???

You can read the last 6 months of Glenn Greenwald if you want the details, but in a nutshell this bill, which contains some minor superficial tweaks to the previous version, is retroactively OK-ing all the secret wiretapping without a warrant that the Bush administration had been doing. When the primaries were first starting out, Obama said that he would support a filibuster on this (pre-tweaked) bill. Now he's supporting it.

..wha???!??

I've been waiting a little to comment on it, hoping there was some twist or something, but there isn't. Other than this being a Sister Souljah moment as Obama runs to the middle for the general, i can't really fathom his change in position here. While he wasn't my first choice, i admired him for several things, one of which was his ability to take Republican spin points and turn them on their heads. The idea that this FISA bill is somehow keeping Americans secure is Orwellian bullshit, and i know that if Obama wanted to he could make that very clear, but instead he is actually embracing those talking points.

This is very disillusioning. It seems designed more to deliberately alienate the hardcore activist supporters than to pick up moderate voters, most of which probably aren't very aware of this issue. This is Obama's way of signaling that he's not one of us, and he doesn't need us (from his point of view, maybe, he's not beholden to this "special interest"); it's hard to interpret any other way.

If he were way behind in the polls or being relentlessly attacked in a serious way for being weak on security issues i could almost forgive a little pandering here, but he's ahead in the polls, and the 'inexperienced' line of attack seems to be bouncing right off of him, so i really don't see it. It has been noted that his performance so far in the general has been a little weak; i'm not sure if this is due to the fact that he is now being influenced by some of the clinton strategists now coming over to his side for the general, or just a basic stumbling as he shifts gears. Either way, it is looking like he, along with the other Democrats, who, you may remember, control both houses of Congress, are capitulating to the Bush administration on this and allowing this bill to pass. They are falling into the Kerry trap of letting the Republicans define the terms of debate, thinking that if they vote the way the Republicans want them to, they won't get attacked in the election. Of course, it never works out that way, does it? It just makes them look like cowards and bad strategists all at the same time (although in this case i still have no doubt that Obama will win this election, making this decision all the more bewildering).

For what it's worth, here's the honor roll...

Voting against Cloture

Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting:

Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Kennedy (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)

Pleased to see my NJ Senators among the few are voted against it. Note that of the absentees, two are dealing with serious illnesses and the rest are (or recently were) presidential candidates who couldn't be bothered to get on the record.

Update:

Two more points-

1) This issue has split bloggers/commentators pretty heavily into those who are willing to support Obama no matter what and those who are pissed over the betrayal. The supporters belittle those who feel betrayed as "single issue voters" as if this is some minor side issue like saving spotted owls and not a fundamental constitutional question. Furthermore, this decision is indicitive of how Obama will act in general, so it goes beyond the single issue.

2) Despite my disgust on this, there aren't really a lot of other options. Ralph Nader is very unfortunately not making a good showing for himself in a number of ways this time around, i don't really know what the Greens are up to, and i certainly don't want McCain to become president. So i'm still supporting Obama, but any enthusiasm i had for it is pretty much gone. I've already re-distributed our monthly political contributions so that all of it goes to downticket progressive Dems and not to Obama (that's right, Obama! you're not getting my $7.14 a month any more! Take that!), but i'll still vote for the guy. Probably. And like Kos says, there's always 2010.

you aren't going to convince me to vote for a milquetoast democratic candidate a second time just because the other guy's a loser.