Now that the mainstream media is taking Barack Obama even more seriously as a presidential candidate since his win in Iowa, it is important to take a critical look at the Senator from Illinois.
Author and radical historian Paul Street has been providing some of the best analysis of the Obama campaign from the beginning. His most recent piece "Heart of Stone: Post Caucus Reflections" provides readers with some interesting insights on the Obama campaign and the presidential race so far. There has been some mention of the $80 million plus that the Obama campaign has raised so far, but not much on how it is being spent. Street points out "Obama spent more than $9 million on television ads in Iowa - the most of any candidate in the state. The second-place finisher, labor-"populist" Edwards, spent just $3.2 million. Obama got 38 percent of the state's Democratic Party delegates, meaning that he spent $236,842 per delegate percentage point." Buying more airtime most often will get you more votes.
Another aspect of the Obama campaign that hasn't received much attention is where he stands on major policy issues. We have already looked at the so-called anti-war candidate Obama, his position on the Iraq war and his voting record, but what about where Obama stands on the recent violence in Pakistan? Tom Hayden states in a January 8 article, "Barack Obama's advocacy of unilateral military intervention in Pakistan if there is "actionable intelligence" against al-Qaeda is giving legitimacy to the Bush administration's gathering plan for an escalation." "Actionable intelligence" seems rather vague and there is no clear evidence that the assassination of Bhutto was done by al-Qaeda. In a short piece that ran over the weekend on CounterPunch, Missy Beatie reminds voters of where Obama's foreign policy allegiance lies. During a speech to the main US-based Israel lobby group AIPAC, Obama addressed the continuing US role in the Middle East by saying, "That effort begins with a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel: Our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy. "That will always be my starting point."
None of this should surprise us when we consider who Obama has as foreign policy advisors. According to Michael Donnelly, many of the advisors that Obama has recruited were former Clinton administration staff, but his foreign advisors also include "Zbigniew Brzezinski, Susan Rice and Tony Lake." Brzezinski, who was in the Carter administration, states:
"According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, closely guarded until now, is completely otherwise:Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention."
Susan Rice, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under and is a member of the neo-liberal think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations.
As the campaign season continues it is important that we look beyond polls and personalities and start to ask serious questions about candidate platforms, policies and voting records.
