234 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographythe continuation and fulfillment of Dr. King’s legacy. But the speeches of its candidate carefully
limit the application of all his troop withdrawal statements to “combat troops” and “combat
brigades,” omitting the six figure number of armed mercenary contractors in Iraq, along with
“training,” “counterinsurgency” and other kinds of troops. Obama also presses for an expansion
of the US Army and Marines by more than 100,000 troops and a larger military budget even
than the Bush regime. The fact that both these stands fly in the face of the legacy of Martin
Luther King, and flatly contradict the wishes of most Democratic voters is utterly invisible in
the establishment media, and in the discourse of established Black leaders on the Obama
campaign. The average voter is ill-equipped to read Obama’s statements on these and other
issues as closely as one might read a predatory loan application or a jacked up insurance policy,
trying to determine exactly what is covered. As we pointed out back in December: The Obama
campaign is heavy on symbolism, and long on vague catch phrases like “new leadership,” “new
ideas,” “a politics of hope,” and “let’s dream America again” calculated to appeal to millions of
disaffected Americans without actually meaning much of anything. Corporate media actively
bill Obama as “the candidate of hope,” and anointed representative of the “Joshua generation.”
There are good reasons campaign placards at Obama rallies say “change we can believe in”
instead of “stop the war - vote Obama” or “repeal NAFTA - Barack in ‘08.” The first set of
messages are hopeful and vague. The second are popular demands among the voters Obama
needs, against which his past, present and future performance may be checked. When the
comparison is made, the results are dismaying to many who want to support Barack Obama.^942003: OBAMA DEEP SIXES HIS OWN 2002 ANTI-WAR SPEECH
As part of his research into Obama, Glenn Ford looked at the senator’s website and found that
Obama had gone silent on any opposition to the Iraq war, which at this point in 2003 seem to have
been decisively won. Ford tells us that he
revisited Obama’s primary election campaign web site, something I had not done for a month or
two. To my dismay I found the 2002 antiwar speech, the same one which Barack Obama touts
to this day as evidence of his antiwar backbone and prescience, which had been prominently
featured before, had vanished from his web site, along with all other evidence that Obama had
ever taken a plain-spoken stand against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. With the president
riding high in the polls, and Illinois’ Black and antiwar vote safely in his pocket, Obama
appeared to be running away from his opposition to the war, and from the Democratic party’s
base. Free, at last. After calls to Obama’s campaign office yielded no satisfactory answers, we
published an article in the June 5, 2003 issue of Black Commentator effectively calling Barack
Obama out. We drew attention to the disappearance of any indication that U.S. Senate candidate
Obama opposed the Iraq war at all from his web site and public statements. We noted with
consternation that the Democratic Leadership Council, the right-wing Trojan Horse inside the
Democratic party, had apparently vetted and approved Obama, naming him as one of its “100 to
Watch” that season. This is what real journalists are supposed to do - fact check candidates,
investigate the facts, tell the truth to audiences and hold the little clay feet of politicians and
corporations to the fire. Facing the possible erosion of his base among progressive Democrats in
Illinois, Obama contacted us. We printed his response in Black Commentator’s June 19 issue
and queried the candidate on three “bright line” issues that clearly distinguish between
corporate-funded DLC Democrats and authentic progressives. We concluded the dialog by
printing Obama’s response on June 26, 2003. For the convenience of our readers in 2007, all
three of these articles can be found here. It was our June 2003 exchange with candidate Obama