I know we’re barely into the Chosen One’s administration, but everything about “Jimmy Carter on Speed” goes fast. Mario Loyola makes the case that His absurd mis-handling of the CIA so-called torture memos and threatened prosecution of Bush administration officials may be the beginning of His inevitable undoing.
Obama’s unerring sense of immediate political advantage has led him to adopt two positions that are ultimately incompatible. On the one hand, just like Dulles, he abets the impression that crimes were committed by the previous administration, insinuating that we “lost our moral compass” and that our government abandoned “the rule of law” and that he’s going to restore both. But on the other hand, he realizes that he has nothing to gain from doomed attempts at prosecution (because there really is no case) so he comes up with the rhetorical device of “we must look forward, not backwards.”
The contradiction has angered Obama’s left-wing base. The Left is entirely correct to object that if crimes were committed, “I wanna look forward” is hardly a reason not to prosecute them. By punting the question of prosecuting senior officials over to the Justice Department, Obama hopes to be rid of the vexing issue once and for all. But the move was only a temporary expedient, which enabled Obama to avoid having to choose between (a) defending Bush officials or (b) bringing charges against them.