Obama: October 2009 Archives

I'm hoping T-Pain can help Obama revitalize the pu pu publiic ic option.

A few weeks ago, several hundred advocacy organizations demanded that the Obama administration overturn the aggressive enforcement policies that have alienated immigrant communities over the past eight years. The mounting opposition to one of the most controversial Bush Era anti-immigrant programs was joined this week by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

In a letter to the White House, Latino lawmakers called on the administration to "immediately terminate" 287(g), which enables collaboration between local and federal law enforcement in crackdowns on undocumented immigrants:

Although [the program's] stated purpose is to provide law enforcement a tool to pursue criminals, it is our experience that state and local law enforcement officials actually use their expanded and often unchecked powers under the program to target immigrants and persons of color. It is our opinion that no amount of reforms, no matter how well-intentioned, will change this disturbing reality.

Clarence Lusane is Associate Professor at the American University School of International Service, and is a contributing author to Changing the Race: Racial Politics and the Election of Barack Obama, being published today by Applied Research Center. The edited volume features 20 prominent thinkers and activists on race and the 2008 election.

Barely nine months into his administration, President Obama finds himself at a cross-roads. At one level, a top policy priority, health care reform, is in trouble. His popular support has steadily decreased and angry mobs and extremist media have dominated the conversation putting Democratic supporters on the defensive and made Republicans feel emboldened in their obstructionist behavior. Even before a real bill has been fashioned, the White House and Hill Democrats have tossed out (or hinted at a willingness to cast off) key progressive provisions.

It is already clear at this point that whatever passes, indeed, if anything passes at all, it will be neutered and not contain the central elements that Obama outlined during the campaign and early in his term, such as universal coverage and potentially not the “public option,” let alone the progressive demand for a single payer, insurance industry-free model.

Already the Republicans are gearing up for the fight over the Climate Change bill. They clearly believe that if the tactics of intimidation, misinformation, outright lies, agitation, and not a little bit of racism from Fox News and hysterically-conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh worked so well to derailed health reform — why not employ them again.

The weak, confused, and belated response from the White House - sending Obama out to the masses and more press conferences - has not only been inadequate but is exacerbating the differences within the Democratic Party. The tenuous unity from Blue Dogs conservatives to Kennedyist liberals is fracturing, as the White House sends mixed signals about what it actually is willing to defend and what it will abandon.

Despite the rage machine that the Republicans have created and fostered, with some very disturbing and dangerous trajectories, the blame for this growing crisis of policy and political wandering flows back to the White House and perhaps Obama himself. Using a relevant health care analogy, Obama has become unhealthily addicted to bipartisanism. His continued use will be his downfall.