Obama Reversed On Gitmo

Well, the American congress has slapped down Obama, refusing to endorse his plan to close Guantánamo bay.

I guess that does give him a good excuse to do the responsible thing.

And it seems that Obama is getting scared of Cheney’s solid defense of the Bush administration. Gosh, fancy that – the whipping boy isn’t going to take it lying down? Gee who’d have thunk it. Getting scared? You should be.

Lest you doubt that Karl’s right and that the GOP’s winning this debate — resoundingly — note that Cheney’s been scheduled for weeks to address AEI at 10:45 tomorrow morning about national security. And now, as Goldfarb notes, suddenly The One’s scheduled to give a national security speech of his own at 10:10. Fancy that.

Update (AP): Again via Goldfarb, AEI states the obvious about a dazzling coincidence:

The announcement of the former Veep’s address went out officially from AEI on May 12, though he had been asked to give a talk a couple of weeks before. (We asked him because this is one of the most important national security issues of the day, and AEI is committed to informing and prompting a public debate consisting of more than sound bites.) President Obama’s speech was announced today. What do we think? 1) The Obama White House runs the savviest information ops of any White House in modern history. This is all about rebutting an increasingly effective exponent of aggressive counterterrorism policies. 2) Why do it? The simple answer is that the public is listening to Cheney on the issues, and if the Democratic Congress’s decision this week to deny funding to close Gitmo is any indication, finger-in-the-wind politicians are listening, too.

Update: Let’s not be too harsh, the LA Times assures us that this sort of constant policy reversal is simply Obama’s “pragmatism”.

Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, who styled himself as “the Decider” and took pride in sticking with decisions come what might, Obama is emerging as a leader so committed to pragmatism that he will move to a new position with barely a shrug.

Whether it’s a long-standing campaign promise or a recent Oval Office decision, Obama has shown a willingness to reverse himself and even anger his most liberal supporters if he can advance a higher-priority goal or avoid what he sees as a distracting controversy.

Pity they don’t have Tui beer over there, they’d have a field day with that one!