He’s made his position clear, and now, so will I. Like Digby and Avedon, I feel there’s more afoot than appears on the surface. And like Avedon, I’ve known all along that Obama would need pushing by progressives throughout his presidency. He’s closer to the cautious 1960 JFK than the 1968 RFK I remember from my teenage years. I knew he wasn’t the economic populist I’ve sought for the 36 years I’ve been voting, while Edwards seemingly was.

I waited till March to endorse Obama. My number one issue, after all, has been stopping the war in Iraq ASAP and it was only when he started talking about communicating directly with hostile governments that I began to respect the fact that Obama was willing to break the CW on foreign policy instead of handing down some nutty new ideology to justify US imperialism.

Oval Office domestic progressivism has never come close to the LBJ years. Carter has halfway decent on energy policy, was strong on human rights, and his Middle East initiatives were the most successful I’ve seen. His economic policies were way too centrist, however, and weren’t up to the task of coping with the convergence of economic crisises that got dumped in his lap.

Clinton was pro-death penalty, and his economics were barely distinguishable from those of a Republican moderate, back when a few of those existed still. He was fine with human rights, though his failure to intervene in Rwanda’s genocide was extremely disheartening. NAFTA has proven to be the disaster I predicted. And the failure of both Clintons to succeed with national healthcare - which 65% wanted back then - was also a serious mark against him.

So I endorsed Obama because of his foreign policy sense. Now, as Avedon notes: “Obama doesn’t understand that the 4th Amendment is national security, and he’s prepared to throw it out for some illusory Republican-defined “toughness” because he hasn’t got the guts to actually be tough in defense of our country.”

I’m made more secure by the liberties in the Bill of Rights. I don’t believe the terrorist threat comes close to what the USSR provided and we made it through the Cold War even while continually fighting to retain and regain our rights against the encroachments of Nixon. It remains utter bullshit that the telecoms require this immunity with our representatives sanctioning their illegality.

Sure, Obama’s better than McCain. I will still have to consider voting for him. But I won’t attach my name and expend any effort on his behalf. I consider not voting to also be a viable option. I’ve never considered it important to be on the winning side, politically. I don’t seek a ‘pure’ candidate that I’ll save my vote for. But Obama has compromised on a key point for me: defending the Constitutional rights of all.

I may influence few, but I’ll be doing the right thing. It’s going to be nothing more than a lesser of two evils year. Which means a yawner.

Wake me when it’s over.