http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/how-important-are-civil-liberties-to-obama-supporters/257288/
"Look at how Sullivan talks about Obama in summary mode, when he's assessing his overall legacy and long-term achievements. "His reelection remains, in my view, as essential for this country's future as his original election in 2008," he writes, adding a bit later, "By hanging back a little, by 'leading from behind' in Libya and elsewhere, Obama has made other countries actively seek America's help and re-appreciate our role." We then hear about Obama's various accomplishments - many of them legitimately impressive - and what's wrong with his critics (who do get stuff wrong). "Obama was not elected, despite liberal fantasies, to be a left-wing crusader. He was elected as a pragmatic, unifying reformist who would be more responsible than Bush..." Sullivan writes. "This is where the left is truly deluded. By misunderstanding Obama's strategy and temperament and persistence, by grandstanding on one issue after another, by projecting unrealistic fantasies onto a candidate who never pledged a liberal revolution, they have failed to notice that from the very beginning, Obama was playing a long game."
This passage shows the subordinate, "to be sure" approach Sullivan employs to frame Obama's failures:
"Yes, Obama has waged a war based on a reading of executive power that many civil libertarians, including myself, oppose. And he has signed into law the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial (even as he pledged never to invoke this tyrannical power himself). But he has done the most important thing of all: excising the cancer of torture from military detention and military justice. If he is not reelected, that cancer may well return. Indeed, many on the right appear eager for it to return."
Perhaps most instructive is the essay's last paragraph:
"If I sound biased, that's because I am. Biased toward the actual record, not the spin; biased toward a president who has conducted himself with grace and calm under incredible pressure, who has had to manage crises not seen since the Second World War and the Depression, and who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name."
That may be the core of our disagreement. I think extrajudicial killings, violating the War Powers Resolution, waging war without Congressional approval, violating the Geneva Conventions, whitewashing torture, warring on whistleblowers, and other actions are significant scandals. I do not think it sufficient to acknowledge them in a half paragraph, throw in a conjunction, and proceed as if you've adequately grappled in your essay with their significance.
In daily blogging, Sullivan often seems to agree, but then something happens. What? Maybe he can explain. I understand why he praises Obama for various achievements, and why he prefers Obama to Romney. I don't begrudge Sullivan arguing for Obama's reelection versus Romney.
But how can you think Obama is an accessory to war crimes who should be prosecuted for his illegal behavior... and that he hasn't yet had a scandal to his name? How can you think that he willfully lied in his campaign pledges on civil liberties... and that he is a man of praiseworthy integrity, which was "reaffirmed" by his changing stand on gay marriage? How can you think his drug policy is so bad that it causes sickness and death - so bad that his supporters ought to stop cooperating with his fundraising appeals - and that he deserves to be running for a "triumphant" reelection?
How can you explicitly articulate all the ways Obama has been as bad or even worse than the Bush Administration, which you regard as criminal and catastrophic, and regularly end Obama posts with "know hope"? Some of these apparent contradictions would make sense coming from a commentator who thought that civil liberties aren't particularly important; that drug policy is an afterthought; that executive power excesses don't really pose a huge threat to our system of government; that torture is best forgotten; but Sullivan most emphatically doesn't subscribe to any of those characterizations. He knows full well that those failures imperil the American project.
And then every time he writes an essay on Obama's triumphs he glosses over them as if they're small failings."
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