For Countless Hires, Obama Turns to His Community-Organizing Past. Not!

by on November 25, 2008 6

Obama's still opaque to me. I have no idea of his motivation. Scares me that he has hired so many Harvard Law School grads you can't even count em. Bill Clinton was into Rhodes Scholars, another meritocratic blue ribbon. Mike Kinsley said that was a bad sign. This seems a little worse to me. When is Obama going to start mining other areas of his very diverse background? Or, hopefully, is this just more cover for change? I am still trying to sell this piece to an MSM organ: Who was Obama's movement? What did these people want re issues? What power do they have now?

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in American Jewish Community, US Politics

{ 6 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. observer says:
    November 25, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    Phil, who should he hire that is outside the box of the ivy league?
    For what position?

    It's like asking an elite Englishman.
    Obama is as limited by the source of his education as is Prince Charles. Affirmative Action has really won.

    Why should anything change?

  2. observer says:
    November 25, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    Surely you understand this since the American Jews have already experienced it since 1945.

    Marx was not so wrong in this sense. What changed is the benefits
    of Affirmative Action, USA style. This made Marx even more true in principal. Race is now a subgroup of class.

    Money equals education.
    Education equals controls of culture.
    Culture is all.

    Lots of (relatively) blank slates.

  3. Madrid says:
    November 25, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    Unfortunately, it's the old sixties story with the American left: the fact that the left never really writes out what they want, never produces a list of demands, a manifesto, if you will. And if they ever come close to doing so, the Democrats dutifully ignore all such demands as they ignore their house organs. The Nation is the most pathetic– people that write for it write as if they were policy wonks, and as if they were actually having an influence on Washington, but Washington just ignores all of their articles.

    The left never made any written demands on Obama– it does not control any think tanks. Its true fonts of real ideas, Counterpunch, The American Conservative (irony of ironies), and very lefty bloggers, are just ignored by the Democrats, or worse, they are labeled as the publications of cranks.

    Alexander Cockburn, who is the last real American leftist muckraker, has become more and more marginalized over the years. He went from the pages of the Wall Street Journal to the Nation to Counterpunch. Some trajectory. I guess the Nation still publishes Cockburn, but he is completely out of place among all the Jewish policy wonks that write there.

    Naomi Klein gets published in the Nation, but her stuff is too shocking and real to get accepted into the Washington elite.

    Thus does the left support seemingly progressive pols like Obama who spout out slogan after slogan about "change," only to reward their followers with more of Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Joe Biden, etc. etc.

  4. Madrid says:
    November 25, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    In any case, do you really think they would let us vote if voting really changed anything?

    I warned naive people on here– at least Amy Goodman came to terms with it this morning on her radio show. It is just now barely reaching the consciousness of the rest of the left that Obama sold them out.

  5. LeaNder says:
    November 25, 2008 at 7:04 pm

    Naomi Klein gets published in the Nation, but her stuff is too shocking and real to get accepted into the Washington elite.

    note to myself: I have to read Naomi Klein's latest book, The Shock Doctrine.

    Interesting interview Democracy Now/Amy Goodman Naomi Klein, Robert Kuttner and Michael Hudson Dissect Obama’s New Economic Team & Stimulus Plan

    I knew I would be disappointed, since I firmly believe the "systemic forces" must be enormous. And people do not have pressure groups, they should have learned during the Clinton years.

  6. ifnotnowwhen says:
    November 26, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    If Obama cannot resist the status quo in our financial system, which apparently he cannot judging by his hires in that sector, and he cannot resist the status quo in our foreign policy (which must include the war-is-business crowd), which looks unlikely (Hillary,Biden), though hiring the General would be a relatively good sign, then, given the condition of our nation's finances and foreign
    war policy, there is no hope for the future of the
    USA.

    It's now or never.

    I am afraid he has decided to even the score domestically in favor
    of more disguised affirmative action, and merely tinker around the
    edges regarding Wall Street and Israel First.

    Joe The Plumber WannaBe is rightfully scared to death.

    As is Iran.

    Looking towards his second term already, Obama is as aware
    of what happened to Bush Sr as was his son regarding the
    settlements issue and continued blank checks to Israel.

    The mild, reasonable Obama is a fascade. I say that, though I voted for him

    as a direct vote against McCain.

    Michelle is in power.

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