Matt Taibbi: Obama and Jobs -- Why I Don't Believe Him Anymore

[villager]

<snip>

Obama hasn't been a total disaster on labor. Most notably, he stepped up in the Wisconsin mess and at least took sides in that debate, calling the push to end collective bargaining rights an "assault" on unions.

But I remember following Obama on the campaign trail and hearing all sorts of promises before union-heavy crowds. He said he would raise the minimum wage every year; he said he would fight free-trade agreements. He also talked about repealing the Bush tax cuts and ending tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.

It's not just that he hasn't done those things. The more important thing is that the people he's surrounded himself with are not labor people, but stooges from Wall Street. Barack Obama has as his chief of staff a former top-ranking executive from one of the most grossly corrupt mega-companies on earth, JP Morgan Chase. He sees Bill Daley in his own office every day, yet when it comes time to talk abut labor issues, he has to go out and make selected visits twice a year or whatever to the Richard Trumkas of the world.

Listening to Obama talk about jobs and shared prosperity yesterday reminded me that we are back in campaign mode and Barack Obama has started doing again what he does best – play the part of a progressive. He's good at it. It sounds like he has a natural affinity for union workers and ordinary people when he makes these speeches. But his policies are crafted by representatives of corporate/financial America, who happen to entirely make up his inner circle.

<snip>

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/7332-why-i-dont-believe-obama-anymore

[xchrom]

1. Check Matt's last name. Nt

[villager]

2. Dang "i's" and "b's" -- always mixing it up with each other!

;-)

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[villager]

4. you mean, they'd have to respond to the content of the writing, instead!?

:shrug:

[Dragonfli]

5. Haven't seen them do it yet, like all right wingers they hate Taibbi, irrationality and personally

[ThomCat]

6. As much as Taibbi used to love Obama,

it's a huge about-face to see him now ending an article saying "it seems to me that it might be time to wonder if this is the most disappointing president we’ve ever had."

Obama is trying to strong arm a deal to get the banks off the hook for what we all know is the biggest organized financial crime in history.

But we already know from the first days of his term that he was committed to arranging for them to be paid billions for committing that crime.

And Obama kept the fed firmly in charge even though they clearly have been representing bank profits, not America's financial well-being. He even kept the wall street cronies in power in the department of the treasury and in the securities and exchange commission so that there wouldn't be any chance of anyone on wall street ever getting in real trouble, or of any law and order ever coming to wall street, so this current position isn't a surprise. It's par for the course.