More "New and Not Improved"

Okay. I was wrong. There was a lot more anger building up on the left than was evident when I wrote the piece below (see, Obama's Online Muscle Flexes Against Him, Chicago Tribune 2008-07-08). The problem, of course, is that the senator's progressive supporters can whine and pule all they want but it won't change anything. They already gave away the store when they threw their support to him without getting anything in return. Without the availability of an alternative (Hillary Clinton and John Edwards come to mind), they have nothing to hold over him. John McCain? I don't think so. The only shocking thing is that anybody's shocked. You can only be surprised if you haven't been paying attention. BHO has been saying most of this stuff all along (well, okay, not the campaign financing stuff). This may be why Ralph Nader is doing so well in the polls, a steady 5% -- certainly enough to make the difference in a close race -- at a time when the tide is most favorable to Obama. The question remains, as it has throughout this race, what it will take to get the Democrats to end the war, establish single-payer national health, rein in the military, restore progressive taxation, and start the long, slow, costly job of rebuilding the nation's tattered infrastructure. If Obama isn't the answer, what's Plan B?