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andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com - 5/21/2009

The Re-Balancing

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by Andrew I'm on vacation, I know, but a speech of this maturity and magnitude demands some kind of comment on a blog that has been deeply disturbed by and engaged in these questions of the laws of war, torture, abuse, detention, interrogation and the like over the last few years. I reprint it ...

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Obama - A "Remarkable Figure"
Hoffmania! — ... Andrew Sullivan interrupted his vacation to give a lengthy review of Obama's speech today. An excerpt: I have no idea whether Obama or Cheney will "win" this news cycle. I do know that this is far too important a question to be judged in that fashion. I can say this after watching the speech and reading its text: by his sobriety and balance, care and precision, Obama has sketched a way forward that is a function of both war and law, seeking no shallow political edge in an area that should never have been abused by Rovian cynicism in the first place. ...

Speechifying
Opinionator — ... military commissions, denial of habeas rights to Bagram abductees, concealing torture evidence, blocking judicial review on secrecy grounds). Like all political officials, Obama should be judged based on his actions and decisions, not his words and alleged intentions and motives. Those actions in the civil liberties realm, with some exceptions, have been profoundly at odds with his claimed principles, and this speech hasn’t changed that. Only actions will. “I regard it as the national security equivalent of his Jeremiah Wright speech ,” writes Andrew Sullivan. Why? Because it ...

The security speech and the race speech
Ben Smith's Blog — ... Obama used a characteristic tactic: He sought to reclaim the issue of Guantanamo detainees by broadening it into a larger discussion of American values and national security. It was same tactic he used when, just over a year ago, political foes and critics put his back against the wall with video of racially charged speeches by his former pastor, and the Illinois senator responded with a broad and effective thematic speech on his personal narrative, race and America. So did Andrew Sullivan: I regard it as the national security equivalent of his Jeremiah Wright ...

Sullivan: Obama Is A Conservative President
Riehl World View — Can you say demented? This speech, to my mind, was a conservative one by a conservative president who seeks first and foremost to use existing institutions to address the new challenges of the moment, and then seeks pragmatic compromises, always open to future checks and balances, in those places where such institutions clearly need reform and adjustment. ...

Bookmark-Worthy in the Obama-Cheney Aftermath
The Moderate Voice — ... out of commission — and sometimes that happens on a monstrous-big news days, like yesterday, with the Barack H. Skywalker and Richard B. Vader slapfest. With “dueling” the clear adjective of choice, plenty has already been written on the subject at TMV (e.g., Kathy Kattenburg, Jerry Remmers, Robert Stein, Joe Gandelman) — and elsehwere (e.g., Andrew “In-the-Bag-for-Obama-but-Still-Making-a-Lot-of-Sense” Sullivan, here and here). Net: There’s not a lot I can add that anyone will give a ...