"Obama Offers Hope..."

by , 2007-02-14

Dear Randy,

Your column "Barack Obama Offers Hope for America's Progressive Future" was excellent. I circulated it to many of my friends. Obama will bring out a lot of people to the polls who don't always vote. I believe that he will also reach out across the divide in this country. In your column you made one mistake where you wrote "To my mind, Obama has a much better chance of defeating Clinton, and of going on to become America’s first progressive president since Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945." You did not mention President John F. Kennedy and the fact that there was a lot of progressive social legislation that was passed under Kennedy-Johnson in the 60's. Had Lyndon Johnson not escalated the Vietnam War which drained a lot of funds from the War on Poverty, Johnson would have been a progressive President. Kennedy was planning a negotiated settlement at the time he was assassinated. Had that not occurred, the War on Poverty would have reached many more people.

Walter Ballin



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