Krauthammer: "Obama in Bush Clothing"

In his column today, Charles Krauthammer points out that Obama isn't quite the agent of change that he made himself out to be.

In fact, Obama has embraced many of the anti-terror policies of President Bush.

Observers of all political stripes are stunned by how much of the Bush national security agenda is being adopted by this new Democratic government. Victor Davis Hanson (National Review) offers a partial list: "The Patriot Act, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, military tribunals, Predator drone attacks, Iraq (i.e., slowing the withdrawal), Afghanistan (i.e., the surge) -- and now Guantanamo."

Jack Goldsmith (The New Republic) adds: rendition -- turning over terrorists seized abroad to foreign countries; state secrets -- claiming them in court to quash legal proceedings on rendition and other erstwhile barbarisms; and the denial of habeas corpus -- to detainees in Afghanistan's Bagram prison, indistinguishable logically and morally from Guantanamo.

What does it all mean? Democratic hypocrisy and demagoguery? Sure, but in Washington, opportunism and cynicism are hardly news.

There is something much larger at play -- an undeniable, irresistible national interest that, in the end, beyond the cheap politics, asserts itself. The urgencies and necessities of the actual post-9/11 world, as opposed to the fanciful world of the opposition politician, present a rather narrow range of acceptable alternatives.

Among them: reviving the tradition of military tribunals, used historically by George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Winfield Scott, Abraham Lincoln, Arthur MacArthur and Franklin Roosevelt. And inventing Guantanamo -- accessible, secure, offshore and nicely symbolic (the tradition of island exile for those outside the pale of civilization is a venerable one) -- a quite brilliant choice for the placement of terrorists, some of whom, the Bush administration immediately understood, would have to be detained without trial in a war that could be endless.

The genius of democracy is that the rotation of power forces the opposition to come to its senses when it takes over. When the new guys, brought to power by popular will, then adopt the policies of the old guys, a national consensus is forged and a new legitimacy established.

That's happening before our eyes. The Bush policies in the war on terror won't have to await vindication by historians. Obama is doing it day by day. His denials mean nothing. Look at his deeds.

Fantastic conclusion:

"The Bush policies in the war on terror won't have to await vindication by historians. Obama is doing it day by day. His denials mean nothing. Look at his deeds."

What Obama is doing has to pain the Leftists. They don't want to admit that Obama is donning Bush's anti-terror mantle; but as Krauthammer says, denials mean nothing.

Read it and weep Leftists. Look at what methods and policies Obama is employing:

---The Patriot Act
---Wiretaps
---E-mail intercepts
---Military tribunals
---Predator drone attacks
---Iraq (i.e., slowing the withdrawal)
---Afghanistan (i.e., the surge)
---Guantanamo
---Rendition -- turning over terrorists seized abroad to foreign countries
---State secrets -- claiming them in court to quash legal proceedings on rendition and other erstwhile barbarisms
---Denial of habeas corpus -- to detainees in Afghanistan's Bagram prison, indistinguishable logically and morally from Guantanamo

The Bush administration's approach to waging the War on Terror is suddenly very appealing to Obama. He's adopting it. He's made it his own.

All the talk in the world won't change the reality of what Obama is doing.

Obama's actions are vindicating the Bush administration.

Deal with it, libs.