Barack Obama Archives - Page 15 of 37 - Foreign Policy In Focus

An Open Letter to President Obama, Or Change I believed in

by Mike Lally | Nov 12, 2010

Dear President Obama,

You’re not the man I thought you were.

Most progressives have no problem finding flaws with your first years as President to criticize you about, whether it’s the whittling down of the healthcare bill, decision to ramp up military operations in Afghanistan, failure to close Guantanamo, or deal effectively with Climate Change at Copenhagen.

For me however, it is the moments in which you have an opportunity to make a clear decision, with profound moral implications, and yet choose to act in a way that makes me ashamed to call you my President…

Midterm Miscarriage

by John Feffer | Nov 2, 2010

Even before the polls opened for voting in the U.S. midterm elections, the finger-pointing had already begun. The Obama agenda, instead of coming to term after four years, was suffering a miscarriage halfway through. The potential culprits were many and diverse.

Obama’s About-Face on Trade

by Roger Bybee | Oct 20, 2010

On a frigid Wisconsin day in February 2008, the rapier-like rhetoric of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama slashed away at “free trade” deals that have cost thousands of Wisconsin jobs. He bemoaned the overseas flight of U.S. jobs and connected viscerally with thousands of mostly blue-collar workers at a rally at an imperiled General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin that would ultimately close 10 months later.

60 Second Expert: Obama’s Failures

by Walden Bello | Oct 19, 2010

The progressive dilemma at this time of political crisis is not one of vision. We have identified the key fundamental values needed to construct an alternative to the abundantly discredited neoliberal world older. But on a tactical level we have failed to translate these values into a political program compelling to those most affected by the global financial crisis.

Lessons of the Obama Debacle

by Walden Bello | Oct 10, 2010

The problem with us progressives as this time of crisis is not that we lack an alternative paradigm to pit against the discredited neoliberal paradigm. No, the elements of the alternative based on the values of democracy, justice, equality, and environmental sustainability are there and have been there for sometime, the product of collective intellectual and activist work over the last few decades.

The Petraeus Bait and Switch Maneuver

by Gareth Porter | Sep 20, 2010

By openly defying President Obama’s timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan, Gen. Petraeus is cementing his unprecedented power over U.S. war policy.

Don’t Celebrate Mexico’s Independence…Yet

by Manuel Perez-Rocha | Sep 15, 2010

Contrary to common belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s national holiday. That date is September 16, which this year marks the bicentennial of the independence of Mexico. In 1810 Mexico started its independence struggle against Spain, its formal colonial ruler. One hundred years after that, in 1910, Mexico rose up to free itself from three decades of dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz and leave behind the unjust redistribution of wealth, the concentration of large extensions of land (latifundios) in a few hands, the exploitation of workers by capitalist industrialists, corruption, the denial of democracy in elections, and other historic problems.

The Political Consequences of Stagnation

by Walden Bello | Sep 1, 2010

My apologies to T. S. Eliot, but September, not April, is the cruelest month. Before 9/11/2001, there was 9/11/1973, when Gen. Pinochet toppled the Allende government in Chile and ushered in a 17-year reign of terror. More recently, on 9/15/2008, Lehman Brothers went bust and torpedoed the global economy, turning what had been a Wall Street crisis into a near-death experience for the global financial system.

Where Does the Administration Get Off Calling Missile Defense “Proven”?

by Russ Wellen | Aug 12, 2010

Calling missile defense “proven” is not only a disingenuous move by the Obama administration, but a dangerous one.

Obama: Faking Right?

by John Feffer | Jul 27, 2010

President Obama, who played on a high school team that claimed a state championship, knows basketball. He famously sank a three-pointer during a 2008 campaign visit to U.S. troops in Kuwait. He continues to play at the White House, where he has installed a basketball court on the South Lawn. And he has imported some of his basketball moves into the policy world. With his stimulus package and health care reform, the president faked right and feinted left before driving down the center of the court for a lay-up. He scored his points, but his critics called foul.