By GottaLaff
I'm not rising up against Obama? Are you rising up against Obama? Anyone you know rising up? I may question him now and then, but rising up? I don't even feel like getting out of my chair for a snack. Rising up is simply out of the question.
Anyway, I have a theory: After the very welcome hearings today, and with more coming, and with no objection to those from the White House, I believe President Obama may be letting the facts unfurl in this way, inevitably leading right into the investigations/prosecutions we have been clamoring for.
Yes, my gut reaction to his reversal about the photos was, hey, what about all that talk of transparency? But despite my impatience to see justice done, at this point I'm, once again, albeit reluctantly, in wait-and-see mode. Why? Because most of the time, Obama is two steps ahead of the rest of us.
President Barack Obama's reversal on the release of detainee photos has angered the liberal left, a perceived poke in the eye that has left some questioning Obama's commitment to progressive policies.
In brief remarks before heading to Arizona to deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University, Obama argued that "the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals" and, in fact, the most likely effect would be "to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."
Liberals -- particularly in the blogosphere -- immediately expressed their displeasure with the decision.
"Since he's been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush's torture regime specifically, concealed," said Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. "Some of his supporters won't care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny." [...]
Talking Points Memo is leading its site with the headline "Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics' Release Would Hurt Troops".
On Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as "an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal" by Obama [...]
And Digby, another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to "Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness".
To be clear: it's not immediately clear that liberals are abandoning the president in droves. Rather, as happens with almost every president, elements of the base are coming to grips with the idea that Obama may not be the liberal hero that people thought he was when he was first elected.
Okay, stop right there. Why would anyone have thought he was a "liberal hero"? He speaks of himself as more moderate, I've posted as much several times over the past year or so. He's always made a huge deal about reaching out, compromise, meeting the other side halfway. There are no surprises here.
This is not to say that if he backtracks on a promise, he won't hear about it. But generally, President Obama has never been as liberal as the corporate media, and even some Democrats, like to think.
The more likely scenario in terms of political consequences from these decisions is that the fervent desire to elect Obama within the party's base will dissipate somewhat as liberals grow (and stay) alienated with the compromises the President makes over the next four years.
Or, we'll realize that he's a very smart man who plays well with others, and realize that nobody will ever agree with any of us 100%.
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