The Shine is Starting to Come Off

This has been one of the more Clintonesque weeks in the nascent Obama administration. On Wednesday, Obama announced that he will oppose a court order to release photos of prisoner abuse at the hands of US military and intelligence personnel. And the Administration announced today that it will be keeping the Bush system of military tribunals in place with only slight modifications.

Whether these moves stem from the sort of crass political triangulation our phillandering former President made famous or not is unclear. What is clear is the fact that both decisions were wrong. Candidate Obama campaigned in part on the justifiable horror that many Americans felt upon finding out about the prior Administration's torture of detainees and its extra-constitutional system of kangaroo courts. We placed our faith in a man who said he would end the abuse and try people in US courts...according to the law of the land.

I can't help but feel betrayed. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised...the Democratic Party's mission in recent years is to impement Republican policies when Republicans can't get elected. But perhaps I expected more from a man who's been labelled a transformation figure in American history.