Ten Questions For Everyone Who Supported Obama
by Stewart Browne

Dear Supporters of Barack Obama,

You presented Mr. Obama as the candidate of change. You attached that word to his face and plastered it across the country. Change We Can Believe In. Change From Day 1. The Candidate of Change. It's time for Change in America.

On election night, you announced to the world that Change has come to America . You hijacked Google so that the first search result for Change led to Obama's change.gov web site.

America responded. Clearly, the country was in the mood for change. Bush left office with dismal polling numbers, some of the worst ever, and Obama's victory was decisive. Not only did your guy win the White House, but his party locked in a solid majority in both houses of Congress. The first quarter of Obama's first fiscal year is now closing...

1. How much change has Obama brought to America?

His first major decision was announced before he was sworn in. The country was in the throes of the worst economic firestorm in a century, and the markets demanded to know who would be the new Treasury secretary.

The candidate of change chose the man who constructed all the corporate bailouts of the Bush Administration.

2. Who might McCain have chosen as his Treasury secretary?

and...

3. If Bush were given a third term, what role might Timothy Geithner have played in it?

4. Were you expecting Obama's financial rescue program to be the same one proposed by the Bush Administration last fall?

5. When you voted for him, did you think Obama would propose and oversee the biggest piece of fascist corporatism in American history?

Your guy just gave a trillion dollar gift to the bankers who drove their companies off the cliff and took the global economy with them. He put together a complicated scheme where the taxpayer ensures that neither the stakeholders in the insolvent banks nor the wealthiest institutional investors have to take a loss.

6. Why is Obama giving even better deals to the financial tycoons than they got under Bush?

All this makes me wonder...

7. Is the Obama Administration in the pockets of the big banks, or are they just getting rolled?

8. Are you sad that Obama is escalating our wars overseas?

Hidden in his super mammoth budget is a huge increase in defense spending. Obama wants to spend 2 percent more in the next fiscal year than President Bush allocated, and 9 percent more than we spent last year.

The bulk of this increase is in Afghanistan, where even Time Magazine can't help but notice that the Obama plan is very reminiscent of something else we've heard.

9. Are you excited that Obama has initiated a Surge of his own?

Shortly after taking office, Obama announced he'd add 17,000 troops to the 36,000 already in Afghanistan . A few weeks later, he made a surprise second announcement that he was sending 17,000 more.

And more troops is just what he announced. In addition to the soldiers and civilians, Obama is also overseeing enormous growth in the number of private military contractors set to operate in Afghanistan.

An army of mercenaries, a quagmire of a war with no exit strategy, even a Surge -- it doesn't sound terribly different from what we've been getting. Gee...

10. Who is Obama's Defense Secretary?

Oh yeah, the same one who served under Bush.