I must say I am starting to feel just a little bit better about President Obama.
I find myself agreeing with him more often these days.
I still fully disagree with his proposed expansion of government programs and spending, just like I disagreed with all the runaway spending and growth of government during the W years.
And I seem to remember a candidate Obama talking about fiscal responsibility, shrinking government and cutting deficits.But even if you don't count the $787 billion budget deficit, President Obama's first proposed budget adds a cool $1 trillion to the deficit. And the experts say that his proposed budgets will likely produce a total deficit of $9.3 trillion from 2010 to 2019.
I remember listening to one of the president's speeches, he decried the fact that he, "inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit." That's absolutely true. He did inherit a $1.3 trillion deficit.
Problem is, his apparent solution to the deficit problem - based on a cursory glance over his first budget - is to increase it by another trillion-and-a-half dollars.
But that's not surprising coming from Washington. That's the place where they are trying to solve a credit crisis - lots of people with too much debt and overextended on their mortgages - by urging a loosening of credit.
But I digress.
I wanted to write about stuff where I see eye-to-eye with President Obama.
He made the right call by keeping those interrogation photos secret.
There were these 44 photos that reportedly show abuse of detainees in U.S. custody at Guantanamo.
We broadly endorse the principle of disclosure and transparency, and by that light the government should go ahead and release 44 photos allegedly documenting abuse of detainees held in U.S. custody around the world.
The ACLU sued under the Freedom of Information Act to get access to the photos, and originally, the Justice Department said it would release the photos. At first, the president said he'd go along with that.
But then he changed his mind and ordered the Justice Department to go back to court to challenge release of the photos.
The challenge likely will be based on issues of national security.
I hope the president prevails.
I generally believe in transparency and full disclosure in government, but not in this case.
I fully concur with the president's assessment that making those photos public would have inflamed our enemies and that they would have been wonderful propaganda tools for al Qaida. The president also noted that release of the photos would have have damaged our military's efforts abroad and our standing around the globe.
Now, having said all that, I don't recall then Sen. Obama protesting when Sen. Edward Kennedy was waving poster-sized photos of abused detainees from Abu Ghraib around at nationally-televised press conferences.
But that was then. This is now, I guess.
Another thing I liked was the president's decision to renovate instead of demolish W's military tribunals to deal with detainees.
Now this was an unmitigated flip-flop, but I actually admire President Obama for this. It shows he can look at a situation and deem that perhaps, given a full hearing of the facts, his earlier assessment was wrong.
Initially, he vowed to abandone the military tribunals set up under W and actually called their use "an enormous failure."
Many military officials were worried that bringing detainees into regular U.S. courts would be a nightmare. There would be lots of legal problems and lots of acquittals, they reasoned.
Many of the detainees were never read Miranda rights, for example.
Others in the Justice Department argued that federal courts or military court-martials could work.
The president sided with the former and decided to allow the tribunals to continue.
Now the president wants to revamp the tribunals. He said use of hearsay evidence will be banned as well as evidence obtained from coercive interrogations. Also, detainees will have more latitude in choosing attorneys and there will be more protection for defendants who refuse to testify.
The president also has expanded the war in Afghanistan, opposed prosecuting CIA operatives and others involved in "enhanced interrogation techniques" and is backing off his executive order to close Guantanamo.
I liked those decisions, too.
Seems president Obama is feeling a crushing weight of responsibility - responsibility to keep the nation safe.
It occurs to me the view from inside the Oval Office is vastly different from the view on the campaign trail.
