New in Obama-Land

A.D. Freudenheim, The Editor

Following up on Sunday’s post about my call to the Obama campaign last week, a few things have happened...

1) I received more e-mail from Senator Obama. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it, especially after the comments I sent into the campaign? Well, no. With a subject line that said “Waiting to hear from you,” the e-mail went on to say:

The special-interest industry in Washington has only grown since the last election, and it will spend more money than ever this time to try to own our political process and dictate our policies in Washington.

We're not going to play that game. We're not taking any contributions from Washington lobbyists or political action committees.

We're going to transform the political process by bringing together hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans to build a campaign responsible to no one but the people -- people like you.

Well, actually, Senator, all of this doesn’t feel quite right, following on the heels of your speech to one of the most powerful political action committees, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Furthermore, Senator, if anyone is waiting to hear from anyone in this relationship, I am now waiting to hear from you. I have called. I have sent a comment via your web site. You talk about “a campaign responsible to no one but the people,” but I am currently waiting for a little proof of that.

2) Meanwhile, although it’s easy to pretend that supporting Israel is the best or only path to Middle East peace, the King of Jordan today gave a speech to Congress pushing for greater, and better, and more effective U.S. involvement in this process, and it is clear that this will involve some concessions from everyone involved, including from Israel.

3) And Senator, I hate to be a downer, but what’s this whole thing about your investments? That’s some “blind trust”!