Jan 13 2009
Closing Guantanamo
Another post to please the people who want to see me as a hopeless Obama critic. But please, it’s not about that.
I’m actually impressed that Obama has realized (maybe he knew all along) that some of the expectations being set for himself, which got him elected are unreasonable. It’s also prett impressive that he’s actually admitting this to the public.
Now I’m curious to see how everyone reacts, though. He now acknowledges that closing Gitmo may be harder than people know. Let’s see how long it takes him. The promising thing is that he still wants to, and still may be able to, get it done. But within the first 100 days? Probably not going to happen. Let’s see whether this becomes a less-than-expected Obama success, or grounds for criticism as an Obama failure.
Unfortunately, people on the far left are already criticizing his comments, saying that he is not making this a priority, etc., etc. Some people are writing it off as a failure. I hope for Obama’s sake that the far left learn to scale back their expectations.
It’s not just his critics who expect that. The people on the left who fervently supported and voted for him are also expecting him to act on it quickly.
His critics don’t expect him to do it at all, much less quickly.