A-Infos (en) US, Boston, Anarchist journal - BAAM* #16 - Four More Years of Clinton? Or Bush? by Sublett

This year's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota attracted an enormous variety of 
protest groups. Anarchists, socialists, environmentalists, antiwar activists, truckers, union 
members and more all gathered in the Twin Cities to express their disgust with the naked greed and 
imperialism displayed by the Republican Party. But of all the assembled multitudes, the hands-down 
funniest was a crew called Lobbyists for McCain. Dressed in black suits, white shirts and fedoras, 
these comic "Republicans" carried signs identical to those of the real McCain campaign, except with 
"slogans" such as "Waterboarding Is Not a Crime", "A Leader We Can Invest In" and "Four More 
Years." That last one was a reference to the widespread belief that a McCain presidency would be a 
virtual continuation of the Bush administration.

     Ironically enough, a Lobbyists for Obama
satire could have used the same slogans,
and been referring to the same administra-
tion. That may seem a surprising statement
in light of the many Clinton-era retreads
Obama has named to high positions on his
team, but a closer look at Obama's recent
moves reveals an agenda closer to that of
Bush than Clinton.
    Just to mention one glaring example,
Clinton never started a ground war he
couldn't win effortlessly (Bosnia was de-
stroyed almost solely with air power). The
one time he tried, in Somalia, he bailed out
as soon as things got ugly. Obama, by con-
trast, has inherited two unwinnable quag-
mires and his only plan is to move troops
from one to the other.
    What follows is a sample of Obama's
appointments, with commentary.
    Joe Biden, Vice President - At first
glance, Biden, the senior Senator from
Delaware, is a puzzling choice. A disap-
pointment even to mainstream liberals, he
apparently brings nothing to the table that
Obama lacks, aside from being white. His
runs for president have been complete fail-
ures and he has no national following. And
it's not like Delaware's three electoral votes
were a major consideration.
    But Biden makes more sense as a run-
ning mate when you realize that Delaware,
thanks to its laws permitting high interest
rates and restricting hostile takeovers, is
home to every nearly credit card company
in the country. Biden has been their faith-
ful servant his entire career, most notably
in his support for the bankruptcy "reform"
act that severely restricts the ability of indi-
viduals to escape debt through bankruptcy
(Clinton vetoed a similar bill twice). Seen
in this light, picking Biden was a fund rais-
ing move aimed at bankers already panick-
ing over the financial collapse. If so, it paid
off. According to Opensecrets.org, Obama
out-raised McCain by 12.6 to 7.9 million in
the financial industry.
    Like the rest of Obama's foreign policy
picks, Biden has been a strong supporter of
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff - As
head of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, Emanuel famously
squabbled with Democratic National Com-
mittee chairman Howard Dean over strat-
egy. Dean favored the "50 state strategy"
in which the party would campaign hard
nation-wide, whereas Emanuel preferred
to concentrate on swing states and abandon
the Bible belt to the GOP. Emanuel lost that
fight. Obama campaigned vigorously in all
50 states, including McCain's home state of
Arizona, and ended up winning not just the
swing states, but the traditional Republican
strongholds of North Carolina and Virginia.
         Like the rest of Obama's
        foreign policy picks, Biden
        has been a strong supporter
             of the wars in Iraq
              and Afghanistan.
    So why does Emanuel get to be Chief of
Staff while Dean is resigning as chairman
of the DNC? I don't know, but I have a sus-
picion. The Democrats came within one re-
count and a runoff election of winning a 60
vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Sen-
ate, and that's the last thing they wanted.
Without the "threat" of a Republican fili-
buster, the Democrats' last excuse for inac-
tion would have vanished and they might
have been forced to make actual conces-
sions to the people who elected them. By
this analysis the 50 state strategy worked
too well. The party honchos want to make
sure it doesn't happen again, hence Dean's
departure and Emanuel's promotion.
    Then again, Emanuel's views might sim-
ply have been closer to those of Obama
and the rest of the ruling class than Dean's.
Emanuel has been an enthusiastic propo-
nent of the genocide in Iraq, recruiting a
string of pro-war Congressional candidates
for the 2006 election during his tenure
as DCCC chairman. He is also a lifelong
friend of Israel. During the first Gulf war
he served in the Israeli military (instead
of the US military) as a civilian volunteer.
In 2003, as a Congressman from Illinois,
he signed a Congressional letter criticiz-
ing Bush for insufficient support of Israel
and supporting the Israeli policy of assas-
sinating Palestinian leaders. No, that's not
a typo. Emanuel is actually to the right of
George W. Bush on Israel.
    Bill Richardson, Secretary of Com-
merce - Greg Palast devotes several pages
of his 2006 book Armed Madhouse to Rich-
ardson, who, as governor of New Mexico,
stole the state for Bush in the 2004 elec-
tion. Palast describes how ballots in ma-
jority Indigenous or Latino precincts were
many times more likely to be discarded as
"spoiled" or blank than those from white
precincts. About 30,000 votes were lost to
this chicanery, the vast majority in heavily
Democratic areas. Bush's victory margin
in New Mexico was less than 6,000 votes.
According to Palast, Richardson pressured
New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca
Virgil-Giron (also a Democrat) to turn
down a $114,000 fee from the Democrats
and Green party and reject a recount.
    But why would a Democratic governor
try to keep his own party's nominee from
winning the presidency? Palast's theory at
the time involved a local political rivalry,
and wasn't very plausible. After Armed
Madhouse was published however, a more
convincing explanation emerged. Rich-
ardson launched his own bid for the 2008
Democratic presidential nomination, some-
thing he could not have done if John Kerry
had been allowed to win in 2004. Of course
Obama couldn't have run either.
    Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
­ The only person in Obama's cabinet who
admits to being a Republican, Gates may
actually be one of its more moderate mem-
bers. He was widely considered to have
been foisted on Bush by the Iraq Study
Group, a panel of influential politicians
and diplomats (including Gates himself)
formed in 2006 to make recommendations
about the Iraq war. The ISG was headed by
James Baker, Bush senior's former Secre-
tary of State, and was viewed as an attempt
by the "realist" wing of the ruling estab-
lishment to take back the reins from the
neoconservatives at a time when the Iraq
war was going badly and Bush seemed on
the verge of attacking Iran.
    Gates replaced neocon Donald Rumsfeld
at the Pentagon in late 2006, breaking up
the Rumsfeld-Dick Cheney tag team. Most
of Bush's other neocon advisers were also
fired around this time. The dire warnings of
an imminent attack on Iran never panned
out, and the saber-rattling gradually ta-
pered off to the low simmer we see today.
Gates was widely rumored to be a major
influence driving this trend. A quote from
his confirmation hearing concerning pos-
sible nuclear weapons development by Iran
is instructive. "...I think they would see it
in the first instance as a deterrent. They are
surrounded by powers with nuclear weap-
ons -- Pakistan to the east, the Russians to
the north, the Israelis to the west, and us in
the Persian Gulf."
    But anybody who expects Gates to pull
off a repeat in the Obama administration
should take a look at his record first. Ray
McGovern, a former intelligence analyst
who served with Gates in the CIA, wrote
an article in 2006 exposing Gates' history
of fabricating intelligence for political pur-
poses. The article contained this quote:
"Gates is the one most responsible for in-
stitutionalizing the politicization of intel-
ligence analysis. He set the example and
promoted malleable managers more inter-
ested in career advancement than the ethos
of speaking truth to power."
    Obama has repeatedly said that the use of
military force against Iran is "on the table."
If elite consensus comes around to the idea
that war on Iran is in their best interest,
someone who built his career by telling his
bosses what they wanted to hear is not the
ideal person to oppose them.
    While the above list is incomplete, it is
fairly representative. It includes two con-
servatives who are only Democrats be-
cause they live in Democratic controlled
states (Biden and Emanuel), one under-
cover Bush hatchet man (Richardson) and
an actual Bush cabinet member (Gates).
As of this writing, none of Obama's cabi-
net choices are even remotely progressive.
There isn't a Christopher Dodd in the lot,
let alone a Dennis Kucinich or a Russell
Feingold. Obama's celebrated "bi-parti-
sanship" includes two parties but only one
viewpoint. Far from being a Lincolnesque
"team of rivals," it's hard to imagine this
bunch disagreeing about anything more
substantive than who gets the last doughnut
at cabinet meetings.
    None of this is to say that there won't be
differences in style between the new and
old administrations. Obama has already
pledged to eliminate kangaroo military tri-
bunals at Guantanamo Bay in favor of kan-
garoo civilian tribunals on the mainland.
He will probably stop the practice of open-
ly advocating torture and go back to pre-
tending that it never happens. US Attorneys
will no doubt be carefully enough screened
on appointment that they won't have to be
fired later for insubordination. But in many
ways that matter to those of us who have to
suffer through it, the Obama administration
is shaping up to be four more years of Bush.


With pictures: http://boston.indymedia.org/usermedia/application/1/206465_Baam16_Complete.pdf
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* A General Anarchist Union in the Boston Area

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