You know, I've been skeptical of Obama's candidacy for the Presidency all along. I just don't buy that if we talk nicer to Republicans all our problems will become manageable.
But I had seen encouraging signs lately. Even BTD, that arch-Obama-skeptic, had some nice things to say after Obama took on the Christian Coalition.
Unfortunately, the Obama I distrust was on display again today in the front-page story Dem Candidates React. The Obama quote runs:
"This decision to commute the sentence of a man who compromised our national security cements the legacy of an Administration characterized by a politics of cynicism and division, one that has consistently placed itself and its ideology above the law. This is exactly the kind of politics we must change so we can begin restoring the American people’s faith in a government that puts the country’s progress ahead of the bitter partisanship of recent years." [Emphasis added.]
You see, it's all about politics and partisanship– which is to say a matter that honest people can disagree about.
We heard so much about Bush's vaunted moral clarity in the Fall of 2001 and later. It seems to me that this should be an occasion for moral clarity too. On a matter like this I want something stronger from our next President.
But it's all of a piece with the story noted in this comment.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out list of political shortcomings he sees in the Bush administration but said he opposes impeachment for either President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.
The comment I made in response to that applies here too, I think.