Posted on 05/13/2009 4:11:33 PM PDT by lewisglad
President Barack Obama's reversal on the release of detainee photos has angered the liberal left, a perceived poke in the eye that has left some questioning Obama's commitment to progressive policies.
In brief remarks before heading to Arizona to deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University, Obama argued that "the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals" and, in fact, the most likely effect would be "to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."
Liberals -- particularly in the blogosphere -- immediately expressed their displeasure with the decision.
"Since he's been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush's torture regime specifically, concealed," said Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. "Some of his supporters won't care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny."
On several liberal blogs, the reaction was similar.
Talking Points Memo is leading its site with the headline "Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics' Release Would Hurt Troops".
On Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as "an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal" by Obama; the post had already drawn more than 500 comments less than two hours since it was posted.
And Digby, another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to "Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness".
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
When will the left republish pictures of the worst of Che, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Ho, Chairman Mao, etc?
Obama now sees that this issue will bite him in the rear end, eventually, and he wants the issue to go away now!
This is pure politics.
Obama does not give a rip about national security, or the safety of our military, or the safety of the country.
Obama just wants to bury the story, now that Pelosi and other Democrats have lied about what they knew, and when they knew it, and now that former VP Cheney has demanded the records be released that PROVE that water boarding these terrorist scum bags SAVED LIVES!
I suppose there’s some minimal possibility that the decision is what it claims to be, but knowing the guy’s glee at releasing anything that makes the prior administration look bad and his antipathy toward the military, I suspect there’s some other reason. Like, for example, the pictures don’t show what the left hoped they’d show.
Plus he’s covering for Pelosi since she will get thrown under the bus as well...
Hey you ignorant libs, Obama is breaking his promises all over the place. You’re just too stupid to see them all.
I read the title and thought, “Is this the Onion again?”
It took Pete Seeger over half a lifetime to admit that Joseph Stalin had done anything bad.
Then there is a strong possibility that when his term is over he may face the same if not more serious consequences relating to his actions. He’s already killing civilians in pakistan afghanistan and iraq.
Oh Obama is a progressive all right, it’s just that now it’s his war, he sees things differently than the raving lunatic campaigner did.
The problem came when the leftards were unsuccessful in driving Bush out of Iraq as a defeat.
Now it’s his defeat and no place to hide.
I'd be willing to bet that's at least part of it. The ones that did get leaked are pretty underwhelming. Armed U.S. troops escorting unarmed prisoners. Ho-hum.
HuffPo is completely crazed about his backtrack on the picture release...they thought they had a good chance for him to help them so they could get a lot of our troops killed, and were VERY disappointed...
memo to WaPo: keep e-mailing the moonbats, they are funny!
Well that was the media's game in the initial days after the Carrie Prejean "scandal". NBC said that the photo that had surfaced was "too indecent" to air. That let the elderly viewers (with no internetz) minds run wild imagining things far worse (from the description, topless, seminude...).
There is also the belief that the photos will be leaked permitting Obama to say he didn't WANT them to come out but...
If Obama was transparent, he wouldn’t still be litigating against the release of his birth certificate.
Really? THAT explains the lack of a believable birth certificate for a congenital member of the Kenyan Islamic Half-brotherhood.
Even though 2 administrations, politically polar-opposites on the War on Terror, agree that releasing these could harm the troops, the Lunatic Left continue their demands.
Just the Democrats way of showing their Support For The Troops.
Obama,
The good news is that you won the election
the bad news is that you won the election (now you’ll have to govern).
The smartest thing Republicans & conservatives can do is get between Zero and his base. His base will take it as a betrayal, and they don’t tolerate any deviations from their hymnal.
Cillizza writes a silly article. Leftists only pretend to care about “issues.”
But the Left isn’t mad at 0bama, and won’t turn on one of their own...because what the Left *truly* values is power...and 0bama has that.
So this “issue” will be either forgotten or excused by the Left.
End of story.
the phones, the fax machine, the email. This cannot stand."
This is one of the first posts on their discussion threads...it's downhill from there. As I stated before, they're tortured by today's decision. The One is being compared to Bush! Cheney even! They just can't believe that Obama will deny America the cathartic shame we deserve and need to purify our guilty souls and 'return' to the rule of law that was swept away by the evil corporatist Bush regime. They were counting on the photos to shock the clueless American public into outrage about what was done in their name! The America haters denied their shame by the Dear Leader! You'll need a whole wagon-load of popcorn for this show.
Yep. That's about the size of it. Now that his ass has been sitting in the hot seat for a while he's beginning to see that it's a hard world out there and adults have to make hard decisions. Just about now... He's beginning to come to grips with the idea that a lot of the stuff his predecessor did was necessary after all...
is the CHANGE the were looking for?
LOL Obama must know now that the CIA is very upet with him and Congress but I think this is too little too late for him and his band of thieves in Congress!
“When will the left republish pictures of the worst of Che, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Ho, Chairman Mao, etc?”
This would require integrity and accountability - neither one on the dim list.
“Plus he’s covering for Pelosi since she will get thrown under the bus as well...”
Yup:
http://www.pjtv.com/video/ZoNation/Under_My_Bus/1796/
“As I stated before, they’re tortured by today’s decision. The One is being compared to Bush! Cheney even! They just can’t believe that Obama will deny America the cathartic shame we deserve and need to purify our guilty souls and ‘return’ to the rule of law that was swept away by the evil corporatist Bush regime. They were counting on the photos to shock the clueless American public into outrage about what was done in their name! The America haters denied their shame by the Dear Leader! You’ll need a whole wagon-load of popcorn for this show.”
++++++++++++
This is rich and wonderful.
“The smartest thing Republicans & conservatives can do is get between Zero and his base. “
Suggestions? I don’t think this is easy. They did this one here all on their own. I suppose we could appeal to Democrats that still care about national security and play both ends against the middle on the far leftist wackos...other thoughts?
The are not the “liberal left”, they are the “radical left” - their hatred of GWB is so strong they would sacrifice their country over it.
They’ll be back on the reservation once he trots out his plans for universal healthcare.
Obama argued that "the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals" and, in fact, the most likely effect would be "to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger." Liberals -- particularly in the blogosphere -- immediately expressed their displeasure with the decision. "Since he's been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush's torture regime specifically, concealed," said Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. "Some of his supporters won't care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny." ...Talking Points Memo is leading its site with the headline "Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics' Release Would Hurt Troops". On Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as "an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal" by Obama... And Digby, another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to "Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness".
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