Why Julian Assange is everything Obama isn't.

The two people most in the news lately has been Julian Assange and Barrack Obama. Assange because of what he's been able to do and Obama because of what he hasnt. Regardless of what you think of Assange (and there is not the slightest shred of evidence that the release of those cables has harmed anyone), Assange has shown what one person with scant resources but who believes in what he is doing, has convictions, and is willing to stand up against adversaries can accomplish while Obama has shown what doesn't get accomplished even with vast resources when someone has no courage, no convictions and believes in nothing.

Whatever you think of Julian Assange he has shown he is everything Barrack Obama isnt,. And he has shown he has everything that Obama doesn't, Assange has shown what one person can do to change things while Obama his entire political life has never given anything but a lot of empty talk.

Assange believes in what he is doing. Obama believes in nothing. Assange has the courage of his convictions. Obama has no courage and no convictions. Assange is willing to risk everything including his freedom to do what he thinks is right. Obama is willing to put everyone else at risk in order do what he thinks is right for him. Which is why there is no public option, no meaningful financial reform, and chronically high unemployment. All because Obama didn't have the backbone to stand up to Republicans and do what was right whether it was the public option, or the size of the stimulus. Instead he made needless and destructive capitulation his hallmark.

Assange has been willing to stand up to world governments and take on the most influential government in the world, the United States to expose what he thinks is wrong with the way governments do business. Obama didn't have the courage to stand up to Olympia Snow, Joe Lieberman, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, the town hall crazies or Wall Street bankers. And how destructive to the U.S. has the release of the cables been? Well the most recent commeent by the Secretary of State is that the cables "show U.S. diplomacy at work".

We've been hearing from the government how Assange's release of hundreds of thousands of cables from American embassies around the world could put lives at risk. That was a lie. We heard the same nonsense after the Afghanistan leaks and to date there has been absolutely no incident of anyone losing their life because of the release of the documents. What it did do was reveal rampant and systematic corruption in the Karzai government. Which makes the parallel to Viet Nam and what was a corrupt regime in the South only more stark and raises more questions about the U.S. mission there. That was the real danger of Assange's document leaks.

What is also obvious and embarrassing in comparing Assange and Obama, is that Assange has been so much more effective at what he does with such limited resources than Obama has ever been as president with more resources and power than anyone in the world. Obama's resources were so great that at one time he had the biggest congressional majority of any president in 50 years, and then squandered and lost it because of the conduct of his presidency and his betrayal of the people who elected him.

The influence of Assange has so far shaken the world diplomatically. The only thing Obama has shaken is his supporters and the Democratic Party. Assange has shaken the way governments do business in secret, and has opened up the process and made it public to the people in whose name these acts are carried out. Obama has succeeded in shaking the Democrats chances of holding the White House in 2012 if he runs.

Assange has had more influence, done more to upset the status quo and has done more to change the way business is done with his slight resources than any of the false promises Obama made to change how Washington works. And so far there is not the slightest evidence that the release and publishing of the cables has put anyone's life at risk and calling it espionage as some Republicans have reveals ignorance of what espionage is.

Recently a State Department spokesman said they were going to rethink what they ask their diplomats around the world to do after some cables revealed that many diplomats were asked to spy. While that should come as no surprise to anyone,the exposure is making the US rethink that and other policy. No one has claimed that's a bad thing. And to date there has no cable or document marked "Top Secret" that has been published. Not one. So the idea that this is somehow espionage is simply preposterous. It hasn't provided enemies of the United States with anything they could possibly use against us.

What it does show is how the determination of one person, who believes in what he is doing even with scant resources and is willing to stand up to anyone or anything against the biggest odds, can shake the world, while a U.S. president, with all the resources of the most powerful country in the world, and who had more political resources than any president in 50 years but had no convictions and no courage has shaken nothing but his own supporters and own party while throwing 300 million Americans under the bus over everything from healthcare to financial reform to the economy and unemployment. And while it's not espionage, a lot of people would say that's a crime.

NOTE:

Obama continued his duplicitious capitulation to Republicans and his selling out, not only of his own party's ideals but good policy and the people who elected him, by announcing what I predicted here two weeks ago -- that he would pull a bait and switch and agree to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, something he vowed repeatedly he wouldn't do during his 2007-2008 campaign, and vowed repeatedly for the last two years. Obama now adds his promise on taxes to the long list of promises on which he has reneged. Adding to the farce of who and Obama is, he said it "was the right thing to do". What he didnt say was for who.