Maybe it is because I have been supporting Obama for the last couple months, but it seems that almost every day there is another reason to choose him over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. The recent back and forth over the so-called elitist comments that really spoke to the heart of how many voters in rural Pennsylvania (and all over America feel) that politicians mainly make promises and then break them. That is what leads people to become cynical and apathetic about politics in our country.
Another thing that is making progressives apathetic has been the refusal of the Democratic leadership to push for justice and accountability for the White House and those that work inside of it. We know as informed citizens that George Bush and his Administration have committed various offenses against our Constitution and our country in these last seven years. Unfortunately no one has done much about it. That might be changing come January when the Obama Administration begins.
From The Philly Daily News:
Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.[...]Here's his answer, in its entirety:
What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it.
The bottom line is that: Obama sent a clear signal that -- unlike impeachment, which he's ruled out and which now seems a practical impossibility -- he is at the least open to the possibility of investigating potential high crimes in the Bush White House. To many, the information that waterboarding -- which the United States has considered torture and a violation of law in the past -- was openly planned out in the seat of American government is evidence enough to at least start asking some tough questions in January 2009.
Impeachment would have been nice at the beginning of last year when Pelosi and Reid had a hot iron to strike. Those two failed, whether it was out of fear or Washingtonian politics they did not do their job to hold the President accountable for his impeachable actions. Impeachment kicks the President to the curb, but he'll be out anyway in nine months from now. What he needs, what our country needs is for their to be justice. We haven't heard anything from Hillary on this and with the way she lies and exaggerates, who knows if she'll do what she says anyways. Obama's response to Will Bunch last night spoke volumes....and it should send shivers down George Bush's spine.
