"Obama Administration Writes Rights Out of New Indefinite Detention Law"

[starroute]

2. You give Obama too much credit for niceness

Sure he's a nice guy within his sphere -- but he's also a canny and even Machiavellian politician. And I think he sized things up when he took office, thought about missteps by past Democratic presidents, and decided that his first priority was to get both the military and the CIA on his side.

Politically, that was probably a wise move. But in terms of what it's doing to this country's values, it was a deal with the devil and will be absolutely devastating in the long run. And especially if Obama thought of it as protecting his flank so that he could have enough operating room to put through his domestic agenda, it was a very bad bargain.