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Obama’s Change Leaves By The Back Door
- Text size
Tom Eley
Countercurrents
November 7, 2008
Three days after Barack Obama’s election victory, the initial moves by the president-elect to prepare his administration already show that his policies will be determined not by popular expectations, but by the domestic and foreign policy interests of the American financial and corporate elite.
Obama and Democratic congressional leaders are well aware that these policies—further measures to secure the social interests and personal wealth of the financial aristocracy at public expense and the continued use of military violence in the Middle East and Central Asia—clash with the will of the electorate, which sought to reverse these policies by sweeping the Republicans out of power. That is why the Democrats are seeking to dampen expectations of a serious change of course.
The personnel of Obama’s transition team and his first major appointment stand in obvious contradiction to his campaign rhetoric about "change," "new politics," and "building a movement from the ground up." The individuals selected are all fixtures of the political establishment, with close ties to powerful corporate and financial interests.
Obama’s transition team, which will assist in assembling his cabinet, is headed by John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and one of Washington’s most successful corporate lobbyists. Co-chairing the transition team are Valerie Jarrett, a long-time Obama advisor, Chicago real estate executive and influential figure within the Chicago Democratic Party machine, and Pete Rouse, a Washington insider and Obama’s senate chief of staff. (See: "A closer look at Obama’s transition team").
Obama’s first appointee is Rahm Emanuel, who will serve as his chief of staff. The Illinois Congressman is a leading member of the right-wing Democratic Leadership Council. While running for Congress in 2002, he supported Bush’s bill to authorize military force against Iraq. A former investment banker, he has close ties to financial interests and is one of the biggest recipients of campaign cash from banks and investment firms.
Sources close to Obama have leaked names on the list of candidates for the position of treasury secretary—no doubt as a means of reassuring Wall Street. Included are former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former Clinton treasury secretary and current Citigroup executive Robert Rubin, another former Clinton treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, and Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve Bank president.
All of these individuals played leading roles in the deregulation of the banks and investment houses that facilitated the super-profits and massive CEO compensation packages of the 1990s and first half of the current decade, and contributed to the financial collapse that is now plunging the US and the rest of the world into the deepest recession since the 1930s.
Geithner has played a central role in the government bailout of Wall Street banks and other major firms, such as insurance conglomerate AIG and the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
As Federal Reserve chief under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Volcker was responsible for the high interest rate "shock therapy" which decimated American industry in the early 1980s and led to the impoverishment of entire regions.
There is much speculation that Obama will ask current Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stay on in the same capacity, at least on an interim basis. Gates recently gave a speech expanding the doctrine of "pre-emptive war" to include the use of first-strike nuclear attacks.
Other names broached for the positions of defense secretary and secretary of state include former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell, outgoing Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and Anthony Lake, who as Clinton’s national security advisor played a key role in organizing the US-NATO war against Yugoslavia.
Obama’s actions since Election Day have been calculated to signal to the ruling elite his readiness to defend their interests and not be swayed by the will of the electorate. To underscore his intention to seek a consensus with the defeated and discredited Republican minority, he will meet on Monday with Bush. The traditional White House meeting between a president-elect and the outgoing president normally takes place much later in the transition period between administrations.
To demonstrate that his first priority is shoring up the major banks, Obama’s first post-Election Day meeting will be held today with his top economic policy advisers. The meeting will include Volcker, Rubin and Summers, along with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, former Clinton labor and commerce secretaries Robert Reich and William Daley, Clinton economic advisor Laura Tyson, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons, XEROX CEO Anne Mulcahy, Residence by Hyatt CEO Penny Pritzker, former Bush administration Securities and Exchange Commissioner William Donaldson, and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.
Meanwhile, a series of statements by leading Democratic figures have emphasized their intention to pursue a "centrist" policy—by which they mean a conventional, i.e., right-wing, policy.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, spelled this out in no uncertain terms on Wednesday, advising Obama that he must "bring people together to reach consensus" on issues like the economy and the war. "A new president must govern from the middle," she said.
Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton, said, "He’s got to lower some expectations, indicate the limits he’s confronting."
A basic premise of the talk about lowering expectations and delaying making good on campaign promises for health care reform, middle class tax cuts and other social measures is the claim that massive increases in the budget deficit preclude such outlays. Of course, the worsening budget crisis is the direct result of the allocation of more than $2 trillion in taxpayer money to bail out the banks, with the auto companies and other industries lining up for similar government handouts.
No Democratic leader has explained why there are unlimited taxpayer funds available for the banks, but no money to address the increasingly desperate economic situation facing the working class, including millions of home foreclosures, soaring utility shut-offs, collapsing retirement accounts and mounting layoffs.
The media has joined in the effort to dampen expectations. Newsweek warns, "Obama Won’t Meet Everybody’s Expectations." The San Francisco Chronicle explains, "Surely, President-Elect Barack Obama must prepare his supporters for the difficult circumstances that he, and this country," must undergo.
Yesterday’s New York Times published an article, "Obama Aides Tamp Down Expectations," describing Obama’s efforts to "temper hopes that he would be able to solve the nation’s problems." "The economic crisis" the Times notes, "will certainly complicate Mr. Obama’s more ambitious domestic efforts."
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
On the same day, under the headline "Next Administration Shows Signs It will Seek Middle Ground with Business on Thorny Issues," the Wall Street Journal reassured the moneyed elite that in an Obama administration, "a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize workers, efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and a slew of contemplated taxes will likely take a back seat." The article continued, "Several of Mr. Obama’s top economic advisers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin—are moderates and reassuring figures to the business community."
Obama’s first moves as president-elect have underscored some basic political facts. First, there is a fundamental contradiction between the hopes and aspirations of the vast majority of people who voted for him out of anger and disgust with the Bush administration and the Republicans, and the class character of the Democratic Party and the social and economic interests it defends.
Second, these moves underscore the cynical and fundamentally anti-democratic character of the electoral process itself, in which promises are made by candidates who know full well that, once in office, their polices will be determined not by election promises but by the demands of the ruling elite and the exigencies of American imperialism.
A closer look at Obama’s transition team
By Joe Kishore
Barack Obama’s transition team is a collection of Washington insiders, former Clinton administration officials, corporate and banking executives, and individuals with roots in the Chicago Democratic Party political machine.
The Obama-Biden Transition Project is led by three co-chairmen. They are John Podesta, former chief of staff for Bill Clinton; Valerie Jarrett, a long-time Obama adviser, Chicago real estate executive and influential figure in the Chicago Democratic Party; and Pete Rouse, Obama’s Senate chief of staff.
John Podesta
Podesta, chief of staff for Clinton from 1998 to 2001, will serve as the Transition Project’s leader. Podesta is a long-time Washington insider, where he served, beginning in the early 1980s, as legal counsel for a number of congressional committees. As is the custom in Washington, Podesta made use of his political influence to establish a lucrative Washington lobbying firm, the Podesta Group.
Podesta authored a recent book entitled The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country. The lobbying firm of this "progressive" includes among its top clients the oil giant BP, defense industry corporations Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, biotech firms Genentech and Amgen, Swiss pharmaceuticals corporation Novartis Interational AG, and Wal-Mart.
Podesta has the dubious distinction of having been ranked the third most powerful lobbyist in Washington DC by the Washingtonian. According to the newspaper, BP, whose "pipeline problems and refinery fires have created regulatory and public relations issues," has turned to Podesta, who "has quietly been guiding BP through congressional hearings."
For Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, Podesta has been busy "trying to sell Congress and the Pentagon on another version of their Stryker troop transport vehicle."
Podesta is president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. The center was set up with substantial funding from billionaire investor and Obama adviser Warren Buffet.
Valerie Jarrett
Jarrett began her political career in 1987 under then-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. She became deputy chief of staff for Mayor Richard Daley and later served as Chicago’s commissioner of the Department of Planning and chair of the Chicago Transit Board.
Jarrett has also held leading positions on the Chicago Stock Exchange (member of the board from 2000 to 2007 and chairman from 2004 to 2007), the University of Chicago Medical Center (chairman of the board of trustees), the University of Chicago (vice chairman of the board of trustees) and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (board of trustees).
Jarrett is the CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate development firm in Chicago. She has been a top executive at the company since 1995, becoming CEO in 2007. Habitat has worked closely with the Chicago city administration to oversee public housing, receiving millions in local and federal subsidies.
A Boston Globe article from June 27, 2008 ("Grim Proving Ground for Obama’s Housing Policy," by Binyamin Appelbaum) describes the state of one 504-unit public housing complex, Grove Parc Plaza, located in Obama’s former state Senate district.
"About 99 units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale—a score so bad the buildings now face demolition."
"Grove Parc has become a symbol," the newspaper noted, "for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing—an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing."
The Globe reports "thousands of apartments" throughout Chicago, overseen by Habitat, that are characterized by similar disrepair. The Habitat Company "managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems."
There is some talk that Jarrett will be named housing secretary in the Obama administration.
Pete Rouse
Pete Rouse is an interesting case, whose political trajectory says much about the Obama campaign. Rouse was the chief of staff to Tom Daschle, the former Democratic leader in the Senate. Rouse was known as the "101st senator" in Washington circles due to the power he commanded, particularly when Daschle was the majority leader. He has worked on Capitol Hill for over 30 years.
After Daschle lost his seat in 2004, Rouse decided to take a position as chief of staff for Obama, then just beginning his first term in the Senate. The fact that an individual with Rouse’s history and political ties decided to throw in his lot with a freshman senator with little political power or influence indicates that Obama was being groomed at an early stage by sections of the Democratic Party establishment, including Daschle, for bigger things.
Rouse has been a strong advocate of bipartisanship and "reaching across the aisle" to work with Republicans.
Also included on the Transition Project are:
* Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for eight years in the Clinton administration. After 2001, Browner took a position at the Albright Group, a firm headed by former Clinton administration Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that advises businesses on policy.
* William Daley, brother of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Daley was special counsel to President Clinton on trade (helping pass the North American Free Trade Agreement) and Clinton’s secretary of commerce from 1997 to 1998. After leaving government, Daley took a position as president of SBC Communications and later served as Midwest chairman of JPMorgan Chase and Bank One. He serves on the boards of directors of airline manufacturer and defense contractor Boeing and drug giant Merck.
* Michael Froman is president and CEO of CitiInsurance, a branch of banking giant Citigroup. During the 1990s, Froman served in the US Department of Treasury as deputy assistant secretary for Eurasia and the Middle East, and later as chief of staff.
* Federico Peña was secretary of transportation (1993 to 1997) and secretary of energy (1997 to 1998) under Clinton. After leaving government, he took a post in Vestar Capital Partners, an investment firm.
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November 8th, 2008 at 2:03 am
The Infowars site is a gathering place.
A gathering place for nutters, lazy bastards, a few genuinely concerned individuals, racists, cowards, deluders, weirdos…and arseholes in general.
The abovementioned are constantly fed a steady diet of truth, dis-info, fear mongering, conjecture, half truth, spin, blatant headline propaganda…all contributed by many (honest and deceitful) article submitters!
If it’s Globalist articles you want it’s Globalist articles you’ll get…tens of thousands of them…more than enough to “keep” you confused!
.
The next meeting will be on the 15th of November at 8.00pm sharp…please bring a plate of humble pie!!!
All welcome…particularly the brainwashed religious crowd…that sorry lot are always “good for a laugh”
.
Being “aware of the game” is the key…and not believing every tidbit your fed!
Aussie!!!
( Not afraid to call a spade a spade…and telling you how it really is )
.
W’s last night in office ~ “out celebrating”
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=k5S88vVTDS0
November 8th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Yeah #1 i hear ya.
I try not to take anything as fact until i do a lot of research on it.
being awar is key.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Aussie, if we wanted your opinion, we’d give it to you. Here’s a tip…SHUT THE C*CK-HOLSTER YOU CALL YOUR MOUTH!
November 8th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Aussie, if we wanted your opinion, we’d give it to you. Here’s a tip…SHUT THE C*CK-HOLSTER YOU CALL YOUR MOUTH!!
November 8th, 2008 at 3:08 am
While I can appreciate and respect your opinion, Aussie, I find the general tenor of your comment in poor taste. True, one oft can’t determine the legitimacy of many things on this site or on any other for that matter. However, if the worst case scenario is that this information is indeed false, then I find myself hoping for the worst. You say one should be “aware of the game” which I wholly agree with, and thus must pose the question of your motives in posting so verbose a debasement of this site with no provocation whatsoever.
November 8th, 2008 at 3:37 am
obama sux
November 8th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Geezuz H Christ…there are some “thick” fuckers on this site…and i mean “thick”
If the fuckers were any cleverer…they’d be fucking clever…and i mean clever!!!
November 8th, 2008 at 4:19 am
Way to be negative aussie.
November 8th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Aussie, I’m a very good judge of character and I believe your all of those you described and also a secret admirer of this site. It’s that simple to tell. Welcome Aussie, and welcome to the truth. If your like me, you can still be in top shape, have a good career and do things that are usesful with your mind on your spare time. It’s all possible my friend. Yes, you could actually have other hobbies, play or follow some sport(s), and still find some time to use your brain for what it was created to be. We are those weird people that can pay close attention to what’s going on around us and do more then one thing at the same time. I do understand it’s a rare thing these days.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Aussie is typical of the idiot thats rates himself as educatedyet has nothing of subsatnce to offer.
A well balanced articulate and well informed individual does not go about attacking others,for doing so is a sure sign of low self esteem evident in the purpose of his or her purpose -an educational stance or an open dialouge or in his case a superitory complex which is infact built on bully tactics and low intelligence provocitation –the very thing he exposes and complains about here o this site(complaining that there is low level dialouge)
Stick to the facts,foreign policy ,who makes the decisions,who benifits through financial dealings and UN global geo-political policies who are steered by foundations who have an all encompassing Agenda as countries all around the world who are tied into the centralised banking system -the BIS in Zurich…adopt the same policies that continue to take away our freedoms our wealth and our cultures -standardising them world wide by force through illegal wars and false flag terrirism (where documatation has been declassified in many instances)….
Or believe the hollow ramblings of “Aussie” who believes that we the people have a voice that continues to be heard and thus our freedoms ,our prosperity and our Futures are being improved because democracy has full transparency!! hmmmmm Aussie keep drinking the cool Aid
November 8th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Aussie is a government plant. His job is to cause dissemination. How’s that working for ya Aussie?
November 8th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Aussie’s just one of those people who has an inferiority complex so he has to put other people down in a flawed attempt to make up for his inadequacies. Either that or he (she?) likes to say derogatory things just to get a rise out of people so he (she?) can then read the feedback and get his(her?) immature jollies off. I would advise him (her?) to actually contribute something intelligent to these forums but that would obviously be asking too much.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:24 am
You folk that are cussing Aussie wouldn’t rate too high on an IQ test i don’t reckon. Iv’e been following Aussie posts for a few years now, he is a mighty intelligent fella, you all just can’t see past your own shortsightedness.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Fema Camp Coffins……………….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
November 8th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Does Rahm look evil in that picture? I am sure Rahm has plans for the next 4 years.
November 8th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Idaho Bob, did you get a load of Aussies comment 8? Are you going to call it out on cussing or are you just going to get on the rest of our backs for not applauding it for it’s ignorance?
Of course, one standard for one person, one standard for the rest of us. Now we know why Obama is going to be the best shill on Capital Hill.
Oh, and for the record, I feel I must emphasize that I don’t give a FUCK about what anyone thinks of swearing. If someone is so psychologically fragile that a few swear words lowers the IQ then go somewhere where swearing (and any kind of critical thinking at all) is censored. And go make some grape kool aid out of the local, pure flouridated water source near you.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Why are none of you speaking of the topic at hand? The proof that Obama is already in with the elitists. Thomas Jefferson would be fighting to save our country and all we are doing is putting our opinions in a forum which ultimately does nothing. People are so saturated with idiotic ideals created by the tube, why are we not out in the streets teaching these people what America is supposed to be. The Revolutionary War was started due to the kings centralized bank… HELLO that’s where we are in today. I guess we need some new Ben Franklins and Thomas Jeffersons of our times.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
idaho bob: i don’t reckon, mighty intelligent fella, you all. wtf
November 8th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Aussie, I agree with you part way…but are you disputing the fact that Obama’s “change” is nothing more than a shuffling of the cards, rather than presenting a new deck? He was for the bullshit bailout even though a strong majority of the people were against it. He never fought against illegal immigration, even though a strong majority of Americans are against it. He never fought against wasteful spending, instead he wants to give the UN control to tax the hell out of us.
You’re new celebrity president isn’t going to change a god damn thing. He’s a sellout like the rest of em. He already surrounds himself with the same folks that have been in the game for years. Don’t you get it. Bzignew Bzerzinski (check spelling) for crying out loud!
November 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k82TlYvD4Ck
This is true…look at the celebration they had after he won.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Hey you guys should all be posting on YOUTUBE. Excellent time to argue the facts when all the OBAMITES are worshiping OBAMA videos on YOUTUBE.
Be nice and lay out the facts to them. Fight the NWO.
Death to the NWO
November 8th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
#20 DK
I’m not disputing any of what you mention in your post!
What i do take issue with…is that after seven years there is no cohesiveness, no direction…and i find that troubling!!!
November 8th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I admit.. I am a nutcase who has no clue.. wait.. I am not even suspicious .. I pay no attention to the common people around me and am lazy as hell.. Why it even hurts me to breathw. I should .. by all means have the right to GVt life support.
Breathing makes me so tired I have to eat from Gvt subsidized food to suvive. GVt is something I am not curious about as long as my basic needs are met. I pay no attention to anything..
I have traveled the world and all people are like me.. they are struggling just to process oxygen from the atmosphere.
Why will I niot get the handout I so richly feel entitled to and deserve just for being born among so many who have so much? It just isn’t fair to me.. Imean..breathing is no crime.. But it is a “disability” in my case and I deserve a check from those who will to those of us who won’t.
Cash donations accepted.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
you fools that bought obama s line of bullshit
are truly the dumbest of the dumb
you have been brainwashed by the corporate government
media . you deserve this
November 8th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Well ain’t this cocky looking Mossad asset got real clout now? And I guess we have no choice but to submit to the designs of a self-serving Zionist Regime who straps on our military might for whatever reason abroad they choose. But, hey they’ve been established here all along cultivating their wealth and power in high places and coldly abusing it to no end. It seems quite a shame that this misuse of their God given prosperity, bestowed upon the Jewish lineage by the Abrahamic Covenant, is funding and directing clandestine wordly misdeeds in our name.
As a Christian I know of course not to be busting on the Jews and Israelis in general and, like everyone, I want to see them all become Messianic Jews; saved by Jesus. But, these guys in our government aren’t promoting a Godly agenda in their positions. I seriously doubt they even make it to synagogue much. They’re promoting a ruthless Anglo/American/Zionist empire with vicious intentions of conquering Arab States and consolidating global commodities through unscrupulous corporate military and black baller banking tactics.
Do you realize we have the CIA, MI6, and the Mossad’s combination of dirty deeds to imagine and consider? This is the Jewish faction that we need to get a leash on. I used to keep this issue in the back seat…sort of the way Jones does…but now it’s becoming painfully obvious with this initial staff appointment that many people at the top do think “Israel First.’ That American Flag image with the Star of David on it becomes a lot more weighty in its suggestion.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:07 am
What # 26 is trying to say, in his most polite British manner of course is….We are in deep sh**, and Israel is going to F*** us up.b
November 9th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Forget Obamites. Let them have what they want. Don’t waste time on sheep that don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear.
Focus on those that care for the truth.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Hey Alex, the only person I hear calling Obama the messiah is you. You are the only one. Why don’t you stick to facts instead making up stories to fit an agenda. You have a very entertaining show but constant fearmongering with no facts like what you did on dec. 31 1999 is very discouraging for your long time listeners.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am
It’s time to change from within. Go to http://www.upgradeyounow.com and take a step for yourself, stop being a spectator and take positive action in your own life!
Upgrade You Now!