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# Letter: Obama's campaign for change is hype, not hope
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/hype-not-hope-editor/
- Published: 2008-07-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:04:46.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Greg Chamberlain*

Bravo to John Marciano for the sort of critical thinking that he brought to his opinion column (July 1, page 5, ”Is a change going to come?”) regarding Barack Obama and his supposed campaign for change. All citizens and voters concerned with the direction of our country should be thinking along the same critical path, no matter what party or candidates are on the block. Unfortunately, that is not the case in this dumbed down America in which we live.

The fact is that most Obama supporters have no idea that even though he is mostly a non-vote on a vast amount of important issues in the Senate, he has voted on every possible occasion to fund the continuation of the slaughter in Iraq every time the vote came up in the Senate. Those who blindly support the hip and cool speaking Barack simply do not understand the sick hypocrisy of Barack’s supposed anti-war rhetoric. It really is smoke and mirrors, just as Marciano pointed out.

Furthermore, Barack’s lack of criticism and his continued blind support of the Israeli government’s illegal policies and continued ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians expedited with U.S. tax dollars and full U.S. support is further evidence of the dumbed down nature of our nation’s voters and proof to me that with Barack Obama as President, our nation will have more of the same in terms of the supposed Global War on Terror. America needs to wake up to that fact, but it won’t. America is numb and dumb. Barack is not Hope, he is hype.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 4, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070408.pdf?ref=smdp.com)