Each Cloud Has a (Very Small) Silver Lining

I suppose this is what must pass for "good news" in our formerly glorious, formerly constitutional former republic these days:

Illinois Senator Barack Obama has won the Democratic caucus in Maine, defeating Hillary Clinton. The Maine victory tops a weekend of gains by Mr Obama in the battle for the party's presidential nomination.

On Saturday, Mr Obama won polls in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state and the US Virgin Islands.

The clean sweep of all five weekend contests puts him almost neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton in their deadlocked nomination battle.

Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton has appointed a new campaign manager after this weekend's setbacks.

Since Sen. Obama's candidacy is the closest thing remaining to an antiwar candidacy in the Democratic Party, he qualifies for "lesser-of-two-evils" status, the alternative (and greater) evil being the bellicose Sen. Clinton. And, for now, he seems to have the momentum in a delegate-tied race, causing the aroma of fear and defeat to waft gently upward, once again, from the Clinton campaign.

However, I can call this "good news" only in the palest and most relative terms. Given what Sen. Obama's had to say when speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, and before the Treason Lobby (AIPAC, that is), it's fairly clear that he is very, very far from a principled opponent to the Imperial project in general. It seems rather certain that his current "position" on the Iraq occupation is simply that: a position, a place from which one moves when the winds shift. Or after he gets elected, when he turns from campaign pandering to the Serious Business of Governing Responsibly. Somehow, it's very difficult for me to imagine Sen. Obama as the surpassing rarity who will even try to say a convincing "no" to the Dark Suits who manage America, Inc.