You begin at some point to wonder whether your fellow citizens are paying any goddamn attention.

John Nichols is, of course. But realistically, who at this point could expect Obama to do something bold? We can certainly hold out hope for him; I still do, perhaps foolishly but nonetheless… I think he has a good heart, and when he can take a position that doesn’t require standing up and saying Screw You to the corporations, he’s fine. Thing is, that and a dollar fifty will almost get you a cup of coffee.

Obama doesn’t seem to have the heart of a fighter. At a time when it’s clearly an open battle between us on one side and the zenophobic racist Christianists and the warmongering oil and money men who manipulate them on the other, the classic bleeding heart always compromising Democrat is just going to compromise away another half-million lives and settle for kinder, gentler torture and only occasional warrentless wiretaps while increasing the size of the military and leaving large numbers of Americans without health care.

Fortunately, we can choose the full-throated pro-corporate pro-war pro-torture Goldwater Girl if we’re in the market to kill another million Iraqis, or Iranians, or Syrians. Or Venezuelans, that’s the direction I expect the Eye to turn next.

Or we can vote for change. And I don’t mean Stephen Colbert.