SocraticGadfly: Drug-war non-change we can't believe in from Obama

March 27, 2009

Drug-war non-change we can't believe in from Obama

Because, as he showed at his town hall, President Barack Obama, either from fear of the political establishment, or other reasons, won’t give us that change on marijuana legislation.

Instead, Team Obama first tried to have him simply not answer the No. 1 question on the town hall website.

Then …

As Sullivan notes, the answer Obama DID give was weak, and dismissive of the background of the issue.

Here’s a much more in-depth take on Obama acting like Bill Clinton 2.0 when he had the chance to do much more.

And, at least one MSLB may have shut down comments on one post for a similar reason.

Steve Benen and/or Washington Monthly staff closed comments on this thread, his usual end-of-day political roundup.

Why?

My best guess is a throwaway link about Obama’s town hall and saying he’s not going to legalize marijuana.

Benen’s “close the thread” antic is as weak and chickenshit as Obama’s answer to the marijuana-issue was, though neither is quite as bad as Team Obama removing the question from Obama’s original list of questions to answer.

The larger issue, though, is beyond the War on Drugs. The attempt by Jared Bernstein et al to simply ignore this issue, as posted on the town hall website, shows what I’ve known for nine months or more, with the e-mail addresses, ignoring requests that he not flip flop on FISA telecom immunity, etc.

The “openness” of electronic democracy is going to pretty much be a one-way street.

No comments: