Ablogination

Progressive Democrats of America, a leading Netroots Liberal online organization is finally getting behind a new candidate…

PDA strongly and enthusiastically supported Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards in their presidential bids. Now that Kucinich and Edwards have ended their candidacies, PDA, seeing no better option, is rightfully backing Barack Obama.

Obama, in spite of some minor indiscretions and a healthy dose of naivety, seems to be growing in political maturity. The point being, his mistakes were due largely to lack of knowledge and political savvy.
The vast and varied transgressions of Hillary Clinton did not arise from being quaintly naive. They arose from the greed, the lust for power, and the deep-rooted Right Wing leaning both she and Bill have always displayed.

Naivety can be cured with education and experience, greed and thirst for power are terminal.
Barack obama is the most Liberal, and trainable, candidate we have left.

One speaks, one sulks

Tom Hayden of PDA recently made the following statements…

That leaves Barack Obama. I have been devastated by too many tragedies and betrayals over the past 40 years to ever again deposit so much hope in any single individual, no matter how charismatic or brilliant. But today I see across the generational divide the spirit, excitement, energy and creativity of a new generation bidding to displace the old ways. Obama’s moment is their moment, and I pray that they succeed without the sufferings and betrayals my generation went through. There really is no comparison between the Obama generation and those who would come to power with Hillary Clinton, and I suspect she knows it. The people she would take into her administration may have been reformers and idealists in their youth, but they seem to seek now a return to their establishment positions of power. They are the sorts of people young Hillary Clinton herself would have scorned at Wellesley. If history is any guide, the new “best and brightest” of the Obama generation will unleash a new cycle of activism, reform and fresh thinking before they follow pragmatism to its dead end.

Though Mr. Hayden makes it abundantly clear that he personally is supporting the Obama movement and not necessarily the man. We have no problem with that because we still don’t trust Obama 100% either. His judgment more than his character.

But then again, A Clinton cannot be trusted at all.
Though both Hillary and Barack have made both good and bad decisions as Senators, clearly two particular differences stand out…

1) Hillary backed the war on Iraq from the very beginning and she has never displayed the courage to admit that epic error and face it as any mature, humble person would.
Clinton was, of course, fed the same bullshit intel that the rest of the world was offered, but she did not have the foresight to see through it like so many of us and a few politicians did. Hillary Clinton trusts and embraces the Right-Wing. We cannot afford such a person.

And most importantly of all to anyone who cherishes freedom and privacy….

2) Hillary Clinton approved, recently, the implementation and funding of the privacy destroying Real ID. The national ID Card that makes your personal data from medical records to banking available to the both the government and major corporations.
Although the REAL ID Act was passed in May 2005, states and public organizations have rebelled against the scheme. Sixteen states have passed legislation rejecting REAL ID and there are bills in both US legislative houses that would repeal the Act creating the national identification system.
There is nothing more important than our privacy. This issue broadly overshadows any other that we are confronted with. Hillary Clinton let us down and failed to protect our privacy. Obama did not.

Steve Cobble, also of PDA and formerly of Kucinich ‘04 and ‘08, had these points to make….

PDA’s roots began in opposition to the Iraq War. PDA’s entire existence has been a daily fight to end a war that never should have been started. We all know that. And over the next few days, we have a chance to act in harmony with our antiwar roots.

Here’s the essence of the situation: if Senator Obama can make it through next Tuesday in decent shape–or better–the electoral terrain in the rest of the month of February seems very favorable to his candidacy. But Senator Clinton is going for a knockout punch right now, this week, trying to dominate in places where PDA has some strength, states like California and Massachusetts.

Why should PDA care? Well, since PDA’s top-ranked candidates–Kucinich and Edwards–have now withdrawn, PDA supporters who wanted to could still make a difference in the next few days for our third-ranked candidate, Barack Obama, especially in California and Massachusetts.

PDA supporters who wanted to could still make a difference in the next few days, especially in CA & MA. We could email our personal lists, call our friends, blog our support online, volunteer, vote. We could, if we wanted to, choose to act.

My own thoughts, as a lifelong antiwar activist, are pretty straightforward at this point. There are two main candidates left.

One of them, Barack Obama, spoke out against the war in October of 2002, before it started.

The other one, Hillary Clinton, voted to authorize that war only 8 days later.
Their speeches are worth reading. Obama got it right. Clinton got it wrong. I’m going to support the one that got it right.

As of today (we just heard), MoveOn.org, the champion of democracy in America, has polled it’s members as to who they should endorse for the Democratic nomination. MoveOn members have endorsed Barack Obama by a landslide.
Clearly Liberals, Progressives and others will be turning from the spastic, embarrassing Clinton’s and rallying around Barack Obama for one last fight to save this country from Republican failure and corporate-funded fascism.

We at Ablogination, who supported Dennis Kucinich and then John Edwards, and their populist movements, now ask all like-minded Americans to join us in the last battle and support Barack Obama. Even if you have to grit your teeth to do it.

The Status Quo must go.