Obamessiah Suck-Up of the Day

Immediately upon taking office, President Obama vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within a year, saying that shuttering Camp X-Ray would make America safer. The first step was supposed to be a Justice Department report to the President in six months, but that task force finding has been delayed as much as a further half year, likely mooting the January 2010 deadline (though the White House fantasizes otherwise). The ACLU went nuts, though the media mostly gave the President the benefit of the doubt--in contrast to how they would have treated an analogous postponement under Bush.

There's no excuse for the partisan press. But the outcome is positive, as Don Surber says:

For two years, Barack Obama ragged on President Bush and Gitmo. Now that he has the responsibility for protecting the national security, he must be more cautious -- more Bush-like. . . But give the guy a break. He’s only been on the job 6 months. He is smart enough to realize now how nonsensical all his campaign trash talk about Gitmo was.

Campaigning is easier than governing, which Obama seems to understand regarding foreign policy. If only the media could nudge him away from the campaign toward the center on economic issues like healthcare and cap-and-trade.

(via Stop the ACLU, Doug Ross)