Obama

There was a brief moment when the prospect of a black president with a Muslim father was alluring. That Barack Obama is a powerful orator helped to no end as well. Yet even in that brief honey moon period something was troubling. I always knew that he had very openly supported the US’s ‘special relationship’ with Israel. I was aware that Obama openly canvassed unilaterally bombing Pakistan without seeking that country’s consent. In the end, I realized that Obama is emblematic of the American myth. The myth that America is a land of pluralism and hope, a meritocracy where anyone can be successful and the government represents the pinnacle of freedom and democracy.

Obama lives up to this myth. His vibrancy is a façade which masks a lack of substance and any genuine interest in reforming his decaying society.

There is something terrific about the US; a society so incapable of honest self-appraisal, where even the prominent among the oppressed champion the oppressor instead of their own.

(There's a great piece by John Pilger on Obama and the presidential nominees here).