David Hoffman: Obama and the Abandonment of Hope!

Somewhere in the elation, optimism and dreams of progress that many, if not most Americans felt immediately following the election of Barack Obama, one critical reality was forgotten: Obama is a politician! This became conspicuously evident when one of his first official acts was to declare an egregious, "look forward, not backward" policy, when it came to dealing with the war crimes, tortures, corruption and mendacity of the Bush dictatorship. As a result of this policy, torturers, liars and war criminals now profit by writing books, giving lectures, appearing on television, teaching at major universities, and even securing appointments as federal judges, yet America's government still has the audacity to condemn human rights abuses in other countries, and to hypocritically demand that those who commit such abuses be brought to justice. If it isn't disillusioning enough, America's first African-American president is also terrified to deal with any issue containing racial overtones. Unlike the self-loathing, ethically corrupt and sadistic supreme court "justice" Clarence Thomas, who is using undeserved position to wage some perverse vendetta against African-Americans, Obama has refused to grant a posthumous pardon to America's first African-American heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, despite the fact that Johnson was convicted on trumped-up charges, because he courageously refused to play the role of the obsequious black man during a time when refusal to play such a role could have easily resulted in lynching.