Obama's Cheney

Is there a curse on the office of the Vice President?

By Justin Raimondo

"The office of the Vice President has surely undergone a transformation in recent years: from Dan Quayle to Dick Cheney is a long way to travel. The role of the VP, with Cheney acting as the eminence grise of the Bush regime – and, some would say, the real President – has been amplified to the nth degree, and it looks like the administration of Barack Obama is going to continue this ominous tradition.

Joe Biden on the ticket with Obama, as we said on Monday, is a big victory for the War Party, which will not, as a result, be shut out of power if the Democrats take the White House. Today Biden denounces the Iraq war in passionate language, and yet it seems like only yesterday that he bloviated on the need to invade with equal if not more passion. Indeed, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden prevented any and all antiwar voices from being given a podium at the Senate hearings......

Under a Democratic administration, we will see increased U.S. intervention in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The encirclement of Russia, a project begun by the Bush administration, will be continued and perhaps completed by the Obama administration – if there is one. We may be out of Iraq, but we could very well be knee-deep in Georgia (and Kazakhstan, god forbid). Of course, in true Democratic style, we'll do it with the full cooperation of our European allies, in the spirit of sharing the loot – and there's a lot of loot to go around.

In America, crony capitalism is in full bloom, and there is every indication that it will luxuriate and even reach full flower no matter who wins the next presidential election. In Obama's America, like Bush's, the system will be fully in place, and Biden's ascension to the number two spot on the Democratic ticket assures the ruling elite that they will endure......."