WSJ: Obama may retain Bush interrogation policies, Gates as SecDef

hotair.com ^ | November 11, 2008 | Allahpundit

[Free ThinkerNY]

Not so Changey.

President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that is almost certain to create tension within the Democratic Party…

“He’s going to take a very centrist approach to these issues,” said Roger Cressey, a former counterterrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations. “Whenever an administration swings too far on the spectrum left or right, we end up getting ourselves in big trouble.”…

[H]e more recently voted for a White House-backed law to expand eavesdropping powers for the National Security Agency. Mr. Obama said he opposed providing legal immunity to telecommunications companies that aided warrantless surveillance, but ultimately voted for the bill, which included an immunity provision.

The new president could take a similar approach to revising the rules for CIA interrogations, said one current government official familiar with the transition. Upon review, Mr. Obama may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military, but with much greater oversight…

[El Gato]

Because the lefties policies they've been screaming about for the last 8 years make nice talking points but in reality can't work.

Of course they can't work. But that didn't stop Lenin/Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Big Kim, from killing millions upon millions trying to *make* them work. Obama is an ideologue, he won't give up the ideology that he's been steeped in, from his early college days, at least, easily, if at all.

[CautiouslyHopeful]

What a leader. Centrism = Hawkish Stalinism wrapped in a flag.