Obama Finds Campaign Promises Easy, But Governing Hard

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Obama Finds Campaign Promises Easy, But Governing Hard

14 May 2009 One Comment

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BY: WC WINDBAG

Without a doubt, Candidate Obama made the promises the American people wanted to hear on the 2008 campaign trail: a more transparent government, a war on earmarks, a restriction on lobbyists in the White House, the most ethical administration ever… as well as many others. These “changes” were welcome by the voters, and expected to be implemented.

Fulfilling these promises has turned out to be harder than anticipated, much to the chagrin of many of the Presidents strongest supporters, especially when some of the new Administration’s positions seem to support the same old Bush policies.

The latest of these campaign promises that seems to have gone by the way side is the indefinite detention of terror suspects by the US Government:

The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil — indefinitely and without trial — as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The proposal being floated with members of Congress is another indication of President Barack Obama’s struggles to establish his counter-terrorism policies, balancing security concerns against attempts to alter Bush-administration practices he has harshly criticized.

Coupled with his decision on Wednesday to fight the release of the detainee photos against the wishes of the ACLU, this is a very good thing. I’ll give credit where credit is due, if President Obama decides to hold terrorists indefinitely, I applaud his decision… whether it is at Gitmo (where it should be) or not. These terrorists are some of the most dangerous people in the world, and until this conflict is over, it is only wise to continue to hold them without the possibility of release.

I don’t have much hope that President Obama will bring himself to support an Originalist to the Supreme Court or decide to nix his plan to socialize medicine, but I am thrilled that on protecting the American People, his most important duty as the Commander in Chief, he has decided to at least be a bit thoughtful.

Less than 18 months until the 2010 elections, but whose counting?