Jonathan Turley is so right it hurts in this op-ed of his in the LA Times. After taking a brief trip through some of Obama's civil rights abuses (framed with the observation that "President Obama not only retained the controversial Bush policies, he expanded on them"), he writes:
But perhaps the biggest blow to civil liberties is what he has done to the movement itself. It has quieted to a whisper, muted by the power of Obama's personality and his symbolic importance as the first black president as well as the liberal who replaced Bush. Indeed, only a few days after he took office, the Nobel committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize without his having a single accomplishment to his credit beyond being elected. Many Democrats were, and remain, enraptured.
It's almost a classic case of the Stockholm syndrome, in which a hostage bonds with his captor despite the obvious threat to his existence. Even though many Democrats admit in private that they are shocked by Obama's position on civil liberties, they are incapable of opposing him. Some insist that they are simply motivated by realism: A Republican would be worse. However, realism alone cannot explain the utter absence of a push for an alternative Democratic candidate or organized opposition to Obama's policies on civil liberties in Congress during his term. It looks more like a cult of personality. Obama's policies have become secondary to his persona.
This is strong stuff indeed, coming from a mainstream commentator like Turley and appearing as it does in a high-profile mainstream source. I still doubt Obama will have much of a problem securing the votes of the vast majority of his 2008 supporters, whatever their state of disillusionment, but the fact that the Turleys of the world are openly rebelling is encouraging.
The Distant Ocean 
When O. selected Biden for his running mate, everybody should have known the game was up. That’s why I voted for Nader and if ignorant little me in the backwaters of southern New Jersey saw this, what’s with all the learned “liberals” who didn’t?
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An exchange of views on assassination
Commenter A: This is big news; Alwar Al-Awlaki is dead in Yemen, taken down by a drone. Obama is sure making America safe.
13 people liked this.
mistah charley: “Obama is sure making America safe.” I disagree. One leader is killed. Number 2 in his organization gets a promotion – and who knows how many new recruits are inspired to join up.
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Commenter B,in reply to mistah charley: Anwar al Awlaki was, to understate it, bad news: Civil Engineering degree from Colorado State University, Masters in Education from San Diego State, was studying toward his Doctorate in Human Resource Management at George Washington University in D.C. when 9/11 went down. To my thinking that represents a nasty combination of skills.
Raised in New Mexico for seven years, he spoke English like an American; going with his parents when they returned to Yemen, he spoke Arabic like a peninsular Arab. To me, that’s another combination reflecting powerful great effectiveness in his chosen endeavors.
You know he had to die.
mistah charley, in reply to Commenter B: As to whether this guy “had to die” – more specifically, whether the U.S. government should have assassinated him – in former times they had quaint customs like “trials”, “laws” – stuff like that. I’m an old guy, and my ideas are left over from the twentieth century.
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The left needs to quit griping about Obama and the Democratic Party and set about destroying it.
It’s not important who wins this next round but who loses. It is important that Obama be defeated.
The left has to embrace spoilage once and for all. It is the only weapon we have right now. There should be a campaign aimed exclusively at swing states to destroy this fucker and his followers supplemented with ground-level acts of disruption aimed at local party affiliates and members. An extremely hostile campaign which aims to marginalize the Democrats as war-mongers and corporate whores needs to happen.
The right-wing has government representation. The left does not. That has to change or we’re just going to get more and more fucked.
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I am here visiting my parents in New Mexico this weekend, and I am surrounded by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and joy at the extra-judicial execution of an American citizen, and I’m wondering how on earth I can deal with this. And the only thing that makes it even possible is that they are my parents, and that somehow that bond transcends these things. I suppose it must. No doubt there are German children who still loved their Nazi parents. So it goes.
And there is no way to make them see the light. And so it must be for most of those who agree with them. And so I would despair, were it not for a younger generation coming of age who seem, in many ways, to be far more sensible. I hope they survive long enough to make a difference.
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so who will you be voting for?
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HoB: It’s not important who wins this next round but who loses. It is important that Obama be defeated.
Not coincidentally, one of the first major articles I posted here was “Kerry is the Morphine: Why John Kerry Must Lose“. Unfortunately he didn’t lose by enough to matter (and he didn’t lose the support of the left, or lose because he’d lost the support of the left, so it didn’t make any difference).
NomadUK: I’m sure a lot of us know that feeling. My parents aren’t Fox News watchers themselves, but every time I go home I get a fresh sense of just how far into outer space I am compared to the American mainstream.
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John, you are not that far into outer space. You’re in the minority but not to a huge extent.
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