Via Talk Left, from TPM:

[A] reporter asked specifically about Obama's position. "I better check on that. . . ," [Robert] Gibbs said. "I honestly -- that's what I need to work on, as well." It certainly is striking that Obama is now the leader of the Democratic Party, but he has yet to say anything on such a crucial public issue. Obama has in the past opposed lawsuit immunity for the telecom companies that participated in warrantless wiretapping, but neither he nor his campaign have commented on his position for the latest bill.

Re: Obama's demonstrable downside, specifically vis-a-vis doing almost nothing about telecom immunity and actively supporting a major FISA-raper's re-election vs. a true progressive:

"None of that is enjoyable to write or accept, but those are just facts."

He adds: "There is a disturbing tendency on all sides to view Obama through a reductive Manichean lens."

I agree with him, but that doesn't mean that Obama isn't seriously flawed and that there isn't an awful lot to complain about -- especially as a corrective to the nauseatingly inflated claims made in his favor in both the MSM and the mainstream blogosphere.

Oh snap!

The perfect title for Glenn's next book.

"Downside Risk"

No?

Haw!

He's been supporting Obama for a very long time... indeed, Greenwald was in the vanguard of the race-boating of the Clintons.

greenwald wants you to believe that this is somehow about the presidential campaign. Its not. Opposition to telecom immunity is POPULAR with the electorate.

Greenwald can't face the fact that he's been supporting an empty suit for the last five months -- and thus he tries to cast this debacle as if it was some sort of campaign strategy. ITS NOT.

Its part and parcel of who Obama is -- someone who isn't interested in leadership on ISSUES, and was happy to give away any claim to any leadership on ISSUES in exchange for the support of the slimebags in the Democratic Party who are responsible for this debacle.

Greenwald has been all about targetting Steny Hoyer... but Steny Hoyer is doing exactly what Steny Hoyer will do unless LEADERSHIP stops him from doing it. Its only in the last two days that Greenwald has even acknowledged that OBAMA is responsible for his happening....that one word from Obama, and the Democrats would have fallen in line in the name of "party unity."

Greenwald may have a big brain, but like the fools over at FDL, they are so full of themselves, and so obsessed with finding fault with McCain and the GOP, that they never bothered to examine the cancerous growth that Barack Obama and the Democratic Party leadership represented.

Greenwald and his ilk are just as much to blame for this mess as Steny Hoyer -- HE and his fauxgressive peers chose to ignore what was happening in the Democratic Party as a whole, and now that their FAILURE to act responsibly is coming home to roost, their looking for any means possible to excuse their own dereliction.

the two things I want from the Democratic Party is that they generally agree with me on the big issues and that they fight the GOP. They're 0 for 2.

"...Maybe we had it wrong from the start: It's Barack Obama who is running for George Bush's third term, while John McCain just might be pursuing John Kerry's first.

Not on policy, of course (not that Team McCain would much mind that perception these days). But in approach, in temperament, in stability, in take-no-prisoners mindset -- inside which campaign would Karl Rove recognize a piece of himself? ..." -- The Rematch: If It's Bush vs. Kerry Again, Who Gets Which Role?

…Maybe we had it wrong from the start: It’s Barack Obama who is running for George Bush’s third term, while John McCain just might be pursuing John Kerry’s first.

Neither. Both are running for Ronald Reagan's eighth term.

...for the rest of us