Forget Obama, Looking to Dodd To Take the Big Shots

Kos has some strong statements for Obama about actually standing up on key issues instead of just talking about change. The issue at question is the FISA bill that would allow immunity to telecom companies that broke the law and Chris Dodd being the only candidate/Senator that is speaking out on it.

Losing faith in Obama.

If you look around the liberal blogs today, there's a lot of frustration with the Senate bill to grant immunity to telecoms who have helped the Bush administration illegally spy on Americans. High profile bloggers like Glenn Greenwald, Markos Moulitsas, Atrios, Jane Hamsher, and Big Tent Democrat at MyDD have been urging their readers to put pressure on the Senate to block the bill by contacting...Chris Dodd.

If anyone from the Obama campign is paying attention, this should serve as a wake-up call. A representative cross section of the liberal blogosphere no longer thinks Barack Obama is willing to stand up to the Bush Administration [...]

The Obama campaign has been playing it safe for months now, so it should be no surprise that the base no longer expects him to, in the words of his campaign, "challenge the status quo and get results". It's not too late for Obama to turn things around. I still think Obama would make a fantastic president, but if he wants his grassroots-fueled campaign to regain some momentum, he needs to start by recognizing that people no longer see him as the go-to guy to buck the Washington establishment and be a champion for change.

Yeah, for a guy who claims he's going to "challenge the status quo", Obama sure as heck has done none of that as of late.

I'm tired of words. At this point, the only thing that speaks is action.

Dodd is putting a hold on the FISA bill, where he released this statement...

The Military Commissions Act. Warrantless wiretapping. Shredding of Habeas Corpus. Torture. Extraordinary Rendition. Secret Prisons.

No more.

I have decided to place a "hold" on the latest FISA bill that would have included amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by illegaly providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.

I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have.

It's about delivering results -- and as I've said before, the FIRST thing I will do after being sworn into office is restore the Constitution. But we shouldn't have to wait until then to prevent the further erosion of our country's most treasured document. That's why I am stopping this bill today.

It seems Edwards and Dodd (and sometimes even Richardson and Biden) have been consistently leading on the issues this campaign, while it seems Clinton and Obama are reacting and playing it safe. Obama has lead on lobbysist reforms, but that was a key issue in the 2006 election and not in the 2008 election. For Obama to break out, he might to take hold of another key issue this campaign and make it his own.