Electing Obama as President of the United States is only the first step in a long struggle...

for reform in this country. That means a couple of things, support Obama before the election, and then oppose him after he becomes President. Right now people are concentrating on the election, because everything else I say will mean little if McCain wins instead. However, this doesn't mean we can't multi-task and plan ahead for an Obama presidency.

The safest route to take, to make sure Obama lives up to expectations, is to make no assumptions based on what he has said before the election. He claims that he will listen, and maybe even follow the people who supported and voted for him, do not take such claims at face value, the safest assumption is to assume he's lying. The reason is because if we begin to believe his words, WE become complacent, and Democracy works best when the people question their leaders, regardless of who those leaders are.

Obama isn't going to do what is needed on his own, he needs to be leaned on, pressured, threatened, and denigrated, in order to do the right thing. If the movement Obama started is to have any meaning, they must end up as his opponents and staunchest critics for when he fucks up. Otherwise, they become powerless.

I consider Obama to be the presumptive nominee, and to Hillary supporters, even those who believe she can still win, this applies to your candidate as well, on the off chance that she finds a way to win the nomination, this message is equally valid against her.

The key is this, supporting Obama(or Hillary) is CONDITIONAL, not unconditional, as such, make sure the candidate in question actually lives up to the conditions you placed on them when you decided to support them.

for some reason Firefox spell-checker doesn't check the subject lines when you post. I edited it.

Also, don't turn this into yet another useless "Clinton vs. Obama" thread. That's not the message I want to convey.

I like that. I've been pushing for Alaska to secede for some time now.

And snark aside, I agree with you 100%. Politicians can't be trusted to always do the right thing on their own, and we should always question their motives.

Obama's motives are truthful, he's not just 'playing' us. He really does want to improve our country and this world. I know, naive, but that's how I feel about the man.
I'm not dumb enough to not know I'll be disappointed and his compromises will leave me reeling, but I have much more faith in Obama than anyone else.

This does not preclude criticism, trust me.

regarding Obama or any other politician. Maybe its simply that, during my lifetime, every politician I dared trust, on any level, betrayed it in some manner. I learned not to have expectations, for that just leads to disappointment. I'm far too young to be a cynic, but a cynic I am.

for a change. I hope I'm right and you're wrong; it matters. But I don't blame you at all. :hug:

We, his supporters, are his Special Interests that he needs to listen to. We have to push to keep him on his toes, but we also have to watch his back and keep him from being undermined and devoured by the Washington establishment.