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WORLD> America
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Liberals voice concerns about Obama
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-09 12:02 Yet Campaign for America's Future will be join about 150 progressive organizations, economists and labor groups to release a statement Tuesday in support of a large economic stimulus package like the one Obama has proposed, said Hickey, a co-founder of the group. "I've heard the most grousing about the windfall profits tax, but on the other hand, Obama has committed himself to a stimulus package that makes a down payment on energy efficiency and green jobs," Hickey said. "The old argument was, here's how we afford to make these investments – we tax the oil companies' windfall profits. … The new argument is, in a bad economy that could get worse, we don't." Obama is asking for patience – saying he's only shifting his stance on some issues because circumstances are shifting. Aides say he backed off the windfall profits tax because oil prices have dropped below $80 a barrel. Obama also defended hedging on the Bush tax cuts. "My economic team right now is examining, do we repeal that through legislation? Do we let it lapse so that, when the Bush tax cuts expire, they're not renewed when it comes to wealthiest Americans?" Obama said on "Meet the Press." "We don't yet know what the best approach is going to be." On Iraq, he says he's just trying to make sure any US pullout doesn't ignite "any resurgence of terrorism in Iraq that could threaten our interests." Obama has told his supporters to look beyond his appointments, that the change he promised will come from him and that when his administration comes together they will be happy. "I think that when you ultimately look at what this advisory board looks like, you'll say this is a cross-section of opinion that in some ways reinforces conventional wisdom, in some ways breaks with orthodoxy in all sorts of way," Obama recently said in response to questions about his appointments during a news conference on the economy. The leaders of some liberal groups are willing to wait and see. "He hasn't had a first day in office," said John Isaacs, the executive director for Council for Livable World. "To me it's not as important as who's there, than what kind of policies they carry out." "These aren't out-and-out liberals on the national security team, but they may be successful implementers of what the Obama national security policy is," Isaacs added. "We want to see what policies are carried forward, as opposed to appointments." Juan Cole, who runs a prominent anti-war blog called Informed Comment, said he worries Obama will get bad advice from Clinton on the Middle East, calling her too pro-Israel and "belligerent" toward Iran. "But overall, my estimation is that he has chosen competence over ideology, and I'm willing to cut him some slack," Cole said. Other voices of the left don't like what they're seeing so far and aren't waiting for more before they speak up. New York Times columnist Frank Rich warned that Obama's economic team of Summers and Geithner reminded him of John F. Kennedy's "best and the brightest" team, who blundered in Vietnam despite their blue-chip pedigrees. David Corn, Washington bureau chief of the liberal magazine Mother Jones, wrote in Sunday's Washington Post that he is "not yet reaching for a pitchfork." But the headline of his op-ed sums up his point about Obama's Cabinet appointments so far: "This Wasn't Quite the Change We Envisioned." |
