President Barack Obama’s attempt to project legal and moral clarity on coercive CIA interrogation methods has instead done the opposite — creating confusion and political vulnerability over an issue that has inflamed both the left and right. In the most recent instance, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a memo to the intelligence community that Bush-era interrogation practices yielded had “high-value information,” then omitted that admission from a public version of his assessment. – from Politico
President Obama yesterday declined to rule out legal consequences for Bush administration officials who authorized the harsh interrogation techniques applied to “high-value” terrorism suspects, saying the attorney general should determine whether they broke the law. Obama also said that if Congress is intent on investigating the enhanced interrogation practices, an independent commission might offer a better means to do so than a congressional panel, which he indicated is more likely to split along partisan lines than to produce constructive results. – from Washpo
As the image of Candidate Obama becomes murkier by the day the actions of President Obama bring into focus a man that was clearly not properly vetted during the campaign. Jennifer Rubin notes that cross over voters may be beginning to have second thoughts about President Obama because they are finally discovering who he is, which is “(not) the Agent of Change (but) the center of the swamp”. As voters learn more about this President they become less enthralled. We may be witnessing one of the quickest flameouts in political history. If the economy doesn’t turn significantly by the forth quarter of this year BO may become a lame duck by 2010 midterms. – from here
