ShoutyBear: Politics. Foreign Affairs. Zarf.

Maybe the most underreported fact about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is that he hasn’t shown real courage as a legislator. That’s partly the result of his newness to the U.S. Senate, but all those “present” votes during his turn in the Illinois legislature just might indicate something. The contrast between Obama and John McCain on this point is rather stark, considering how McCain stuck his political neck out on an immigration compromise, the so-called surge strategy, and on torture.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting his decision to back the compromise legislation on FISA, but look at it this way: A scaredy-cat panderer would dig his heels in on telecom immunity because the bill is going to pass no matter what. John Kerry, whose undoing in 2004 was probably the mistaken notion that he needed the Nation crowd to win election, would totally have voted against cloture yesterday. (And in the Some People Never Learn vein, he did.)

Here’s the thing about telecom immunity: It’s beside the point. Continue reading Barack Obama Does Something Brave, Finally….