He is playing the game because he must Fantasma if he is to have any hope of being elected at all. That is not an idictment of Barack Obama, but of the society he is living in.

Now, Dennis Kucinich did not play the game. Neither did Ron Paul. They came out agaisnt the war from the start, voted against it in Congress, and were totally honest about it. You see how far they got with that approach, though I admire them for it.

You cannot get elected president if you are wholly truthful with the American public.

So there are two choices. 1. Stand on principle and don't get elected, in which case you cannot change things anyway. 2. Play the game and get elected, in which case you might be able to change some things, assuming you have the will to...but the odds against it are long ones indeed.

The only thing I'm not clear on is if Obama actually intends to be such an agent of change. He talks as if he wants to. We shall see.