Cindy Sheehan protests this president, too

Too much continuity from the last administration means this one also has the antiwar activist on its hands

Published August 27, 2009 10:45PM (EDT)

The president has changed, and so has the vacation spot, but Cindy Sheehan hasn't. Little wonder, then, that the veteran Bush protester isn't giving up her practice of following the president on his summer vacation.

Sheehan showed up Thursday at Martha’s Vineyard, where the Obama family is currently staying.

“Even though the facade has changed in Washington, D.C., the policies are still the same,” Sheehan said. Objecting to the slow pace of the Iraq withdrawal and the escalation in Afghanistan, she added, “We have to realize it is not the president who is power, it is not the party that is in power, it is the system that stays the same, no matter who is in charge.”

Sheehan's not likely to get nearly as much coverage this time around; indeed, the whole antiwar movement has stalled since President Obama was inaugurated. It's true that much of the country's posture overseas appears the same now as it was under President Bush, but the difference in tone and thrust -- not to mention the presence of an anti-Iraq war Democrat in the White House and the economic crisis -- has dimmed the fervor of the opposition to the war. And Sheehan's actions over the years have caused her to slip further from the mainstream.


By Gabriel Winant

Gabriel Winant is a graduate student in American history at Yale.

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Afghanistan Barack Obama George W. Bush Iraq War War Room