Obama: “It’s okay, I’m not Bush.”

President Obama’s response to the NSA data mining program struck me as typically ungracious. He slams those on the right for not being “overly concerned” about these programs under Bush and is basically telling them it’s about time they got on his side because, of course, HE was critical of them under Bush. But while campaign-Obama declared they were part of a “false choice” between liberty and security, now that HE’s President, they are part of the “tough choices” we have to make. And he “welcomes that debate” which he presumably kept secret until now just because he loves delayed gratification (or because program exposure harms national security).

Setting aside for a moment the debate over whether these programs are an outrage or a technological blessing in the cause of liberty, the President’s stand is undermined by his inability to say “Bush was right, I was wrong” on many issues in which a response to threats toward the United States are at issue.