speculate or conclude.

obama has repeatedly said for us to hold his feet to the fire, so i intend to demand, demand, demand, starting now. i don't care what obama wants, i only care about what *i* want.

begin to accept this:

"I don’t view the campaign, or much of what Obama said during it, as being particularly instructive on this question at all. During the campaign, Obama maintained a single-minded fixation on one goal: to win, and most if not all of what he said in the last six months was designed to achieve that goal, not to signal what he actually thinks or will do…."

That it is just fine to lie to win; that truth is obsolete, particularly if you are running for President of the United States? That it is all right if you voted for the guy because you deeply believe that you might get health care; or a chance for better education for your children or your son or daughter may not have to go to war or will be able to come back from one?

You know what? We just had a CEO corporate president for 8 years; a liar and a manipulator.

Speaking for me, Greenwald's statement is BS in that we should have such low expectations of a president's honesty and his passion for change.

are getting warm, but his ears should be burning nicely.

It's only the Washington Post and I guess it's only speculation but,

Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
...snip

Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson's.
...snip

The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.
...snip

The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. "Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer," Obama said in January.

when a counter-narrative to the Great Transendence narrative is so badly needed now.

Judging by the way the most of the electorate swallowed the most bizarre and outrageous claims about what Obama will do, and that we are still in the midst of celebrating The Most Important Presidency For All Time, I think that most claims about what Obama will do have already transformed themselves into Obama has already done in the minds of millions.

I just spent a year talking to people who's eyes glazed over at the mention of even the mildest criticisms of Obama, coupled with a complete denial that he could ever do anything wrong, or actually mean anything he said that wasn't included in the progressive I Have a Dream catalog.

I really don't think it should be frowned on to point out: 1) Obama has done nothing yet, esp. in the face of profligate claims that he's already Transcended; or 2) he has little history of doing much at all.

As for reversing 8 years of reactionary Bush executive dicta, I will be very glad if it happens, but really, don't you think that's about the least he could do? Shouldn't that be the least we expect of any Democrat? Isn't it fairly standard for the incoming executive to reverse the policies of an opponent-party predecessor? Can we perhaps be glad without being pathetically grateful?

giving trillions more to the financial industry first--like Bush.

billions for his energy donors too--that's a high priority, he said.

and his healthcare donors (incl private insurers and HMOs) gain billions in new business if his health "care" plans get thru, too -- http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/moth... -- "Why the medical insurance industry is cheering Obama’s victory."

and including increasing those H1B visas for tech firms too, which hurt the job situation for the rest of us -- http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...

plus--he's a "free trader", so more of those horrendous agreements like NAFTA.

while its not my ideal climate, their economy is already hitting bottom, and moving there with American dollars at one's disposal means that one can live there comfortably...

now. Capture all the people who conflate what Obama intends to do with it already having been done, plus (bonus) give progressive commentators an excuse to slap around anyone asking for action now with 'what do you want from him? He said he'll do X already!'

I'd love to put up a big countdown clock somewhere -- how many days until Obama reverses Bush's EOs after taking office?

I'd be happy if it turned out to be 0, btw.

And, it gives me some hope if he reverses even just one of those decisions. Yeah, I know, low expectations, but I'll take anything I can get at the moment.

To be clear, until Obama does something to earn my trust, he's nothing more than a means to our ends, a tool, an instrument that may sometimes accomplish something, not someone to count on for much of anything besides being more receptive to my issues than Bush.

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?dia... -- Vague, Nameless Left Quickly Condemns Obama