This is what Obama was good at. I'm a communist, I have no reason to praise the Neoliberal policies, his bending to corporate interest, and his belief in "goodness" or whatever abstraction just winning because people want it to win.
But standing up there and being charming and whatnot is what Obama does well. Clinton could do that to some extent, but there was something a little more slippery about him. Slick Willy was like a used car salesman that you actually wanted to like—but you knew you were getting ripped off.
Obama is a politician that believes in his politics, even though he's getting check-mated all the time. I think some people read that as arrogant, but I see it more as naive and almost a little charming that he thinks everything's going to turn out well because that's how it
should come out.
But sometimes the monsters win.
And it's not the liberalism practiced by Democrats or Republicans and their faith that everything will turn out alright that stops it.
Alis Volat Propriis; Tiocfaidh ár lá; Proletarier Aller Länder, Vereinigt Euch!