Barack Obama won the presidency and made history by becoming the first president of African descent. The election was also historic because it was a reaction to the regime of George W. Bush, the war in Iraq, and the evaporation of their constitutional freedoms before their eyes in the prior 8 years. Obama gained on Clinton late in the election, as his status as a community organizer outstripped Clinton’s formidable legacy to Washington high society. Although Obama ran on “Change,” his first six months as president reveal that he has not only continued Bush regime policies but entrenched them even further.
After Congress wearily passed the first banker bailout under Bush, Obama swiftly passed a second bailout of massive proportions, more than $750 billion dollars. Amidst talk of hyper inflation, the Obama administration passed the auto bailout, and the Cash For Clunkers program.
On the war front, Obama withdrew many troops from Baghdad but added another forty thousand troops within his first six months in office. The US military is currently building a brand new base to house thousands of troops for what seems to be shaping up as a long war. Obama closed Guantanamo, but refused to release the torture abuse photos. Obama did not end the cruel practice of rendition, a forced kidnapping and torture interrogation on non-US soil.
Obama has continued the violation of first amendment rights by allowing unwarranted wiretapping of domestic phone calls and emails, began under the Bush regime. In addition, Obama has permitted the telecommunications companies ongoing immunity from the illegal act of releasing phone call and email data.
Obama has tried to provide single payer healthcare to the American people, where the government would “compete” with private insurers to bring down costs. This has been met with criticism for the transparency of the asserted model, whose cost-saving structure would ultimately r...