Barack Obama Turns Right: Say it Ain’t So

Having eliminated his rivals for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama is now in a two man race for the White House against Senator John McCain. And he’s done what Democrats normally do when they secure their party’s nomination---he’s turning to the right, or to the centre as his handlers would describe it.

Here are three issues on which the Senator from Illinois has refitted his sails for a tack to the right:

Obama has decided to opt out of the public financing system for the general election, the first major party candidate to do this since the system was created in 1976. A presidential candidate is entitled to receive funding from the federal government provided he limits his own spending to the level of the matching federal grant which is $84.1 million for the 2008 election. Earlier in the campaign, Obama said he would try to work out an agreement with the Republicans so he could remain within the public financing system. McCain, who has raised less than half as much money as Obama so far, will accept public financing. (It is, of course, ludicrous that in the U.S. that are no limits to the amount a candidate can spend. If he or she chooses to, a candidate can spend any amount by simply opting out of the public system.) Obama justified his decision by charging that: “The public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system. John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.” While Obama’s criticisms are valid, the step he is now taking will put the last nail in the coffin of the public system that does exist. In the United States, democracy is under threat from plutocracy, a political system in which huge sums of money are the key to the achievement of high office.
The Senator from Illinois supported a deal with the Bush administration on the wiretapping of residents of the United States in the interest of national security. This so-called “compromise” bill will allow the U.S. government to make use of evidence that was previously obtained by wiretapping without a warrant, even should courts later rule that the spying was not legal. Liberal and civil liberties activists are shocked at Obama’s decision to support the bill. MoveOn.org, for instance, has called on its two million members to demand that Obama stick to his former opposition to the use of evidence derived from illegal wiretaps: “Can you call Senator Obama today and tell him you’re counting on him to keep his word? Ask him to block any compromise that includes immunity for phone companies that helped Bush break the law.”
Although he has been a critic of the way capital punishment has been used in the U.S., Barack Obama declared that he opposed this week’s decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that bars the execution of child rapists in cases where they do not kill their victims. By a five to four decision, the less staunchly right-wing members of the court struck down a 1995 Louisiana law that permitted the use of the death penalty to punish someone convicted of raping a child under the age of 12. For the past thirty years, executions in the United States have been limited to those who commit capital crimes. The decision of the Supreme Court did not narrow the use of capital punishment in any way. It simply prevented a widening of the resort to capital punishment to include a category of non-capital crimes. No one doubts the heinousness of the rape of children. For those who oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, however, which is the position of Canada and the member states of the European Union, alternative punishments exist---in Canada, for instance, criminals deemed to be “dangerous offenders” can be confined to prison for life with no possibility of parole. It is deeply disappointing to see Barack Obama joining Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts in a bid to widen the application of capital punishment in the United States.

Barack Obama’s sheen as the candidate who would transform America is losing some of its lustre. Yes, we can?