Critical Support for the Obama Candidacy

In the wake of the widely publicized presidential candidate "faith forum" over the weekend, here are two interesting perspectives on supporting Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election while frankly criticizing his coziness with corporate power:

janinsanfran focuses on Obama's support for Bill Clinton's 1996 "welfare reform" act as a way of distancing himself from the needs of poor black people. Despite this, she sees him as clearly preferable to Republican John McCain.

Norman Solomon, believes that

we're in great need of willingness to acknowledge contradictory truths, to sort through them as a means of finding the best progressive strategies for the here and now. While some attacks on Obama from the left are overheated, overly ideological and mechanistic, there's scant basis for denying the reality that his campaign and his positions are way too cozy with corporate power. Meanwhile, his embrace of escalating the war in Afghanistan reflects acceptance rather than rejection of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism."

Nevertheless, Solomon, who is an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention, also supports Obama over McCain.

Given that Cynthia McKinney is not on the ballot in Oklahoma, I will cheerfully vote for Obama.