OBAMA HAS DONE LITTLE TO SIGNAL PROGRESSIVE CHANGE

As we wait impatiently for the Obama administration to begin we can say that we are at once relieved and prepared to be profoundly disappointed. On the one hand Obama could hardly be worse than the Bush regime. Yet he has appointed a gaggle of Clintonites to his new White House staff. Is the Obama administration going to be some peculiar version of Clinton III?

Of course we will have to wait for deeds in order to see if Obama is any less in the back pocket of the fossil fuel industries. Will he, in fact support a genuinely green energy configuration for the United States or will he push such nonsense as "clean coal", continuing dependence on oil for transportation and we already know he likes nuclear power. Of course all of these choices make it possible for a few investors to make a killing charging most of us for our energy usage. What weneed is a return to public utilities that are controlled by scientific minded citizens who want to see the public get the necessary power they need without destroying our climate through global warming.

He seems to be realloy in big with the financial capitalists. Just about everyone in his administration is a financial capitalist or has been at some time in their careers. I don't see how anything progressive can come out of that.

If Obama is waiting to signal progressive reforms he is doing a good job of hiding his intentions. So far he sounds like he thinks the political campaign is still underway, continuing to evade the real policies he will seek to implement. Yet at the end of the day flowery rhetoric without substance will satisfy no one. He doesn't even talk the talk.