Today, President Obama hosted a town hall meeting in Elkhart, IN — which faces the nation’s fastest-rising unemployment rate — to promote his recovery and reinvestment plan. As the Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin notes, Obama traveled to relatively unfriendly territory: Obama lost the county to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 44 percent to 56 percent. Despite that fact, the White House did not screen its audience, who had the chance to ask the president questions:No prescreening for ideology! It's almost as if the President was willing to listen to criticism and be a leader to ALL the people, not just the ones who like him!
Bad Idea:
In federal court today, the Obama administration signaled it would uphold the Bush administration’s state secrets position in a lawsuit regarding Bush’s use of extraordinary rendition. Five men who say they were victims of extraordinary rendition — including current Guantanamo detainee and torture victim Binyam Mohamed — sued, but the case was thrown out last year after Bush declared it to be a matter of state secrets.I can't help but think this has less to do with how dangerous these people are to the world (we could only benefit from information about that getting out) than how dangerous they are to the previous administration. Call it professional courtesy towards Bush. Good sportsmanship to a fault. Yes, I'm only guessing here, but what else can I do?
(h/t to Think Progress)
9 comments:
You've got to be kidding with the "professional courtesy" business right? Wow. You guys will break your backs bending over to find a way to absolve The One for doing the same things Bush did, eh?
Weak, dude. Very weak.
One day those of you on the Left will realize that there are bad people out there that wish us harm.
Obama has seen the same material that Bush saw, and came to the same conclusion as Bush.
If the most liberal person ever elected to the Office of President can understand that extreme circumstances call for extreme measures, why can't you?
Obama "gets it". Why don't you?
Publius, I'm not absolving Obama, I'm criticizing him.
WAMK, to put it shortly I don't think we can preserve the American way of life by becoming the Nazis.
The guy you voted for does.
I'm going to have to accuse you of what you're accusing me of: you're seeing what you want to see.
The administration has said in a dozen different ways that they aren't going to torture prisoners. The previous administration said that whatever they did to prisoners, it wasn't torture. We both know it was torture, and you're okay with that; but Obama and really every president before Bush) by all accounts is not.
Piker, you might have blinders on to what has happened in respect to Obama endorsing rendition and most likely torture, but Daily Kos sees it the same way as I do:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/10/12624/4251/125/695521
And so does the ACLU.
I'm sure both of those organizations are now Right-leaning in their thinking..
You look good in those rose-colored glasses.
So you're offering as your unimpeachable sources the two entitities you trust the least? Why not quote Olberman too, while you're at it?
Again, they're all matters of opinion regarding what Obama will do. Kos' people are upset that Obama hasn't completely dismantled the Bush policies overnight AND turned Cheney over to the Hague; but they aren't saying he's torturing anybody.
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
Yeah, that's what I kept saying about those WMDs. I'm glad they eventually turned up!
Well, regarding this issue, time will tell.
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