JUST CHANGE THE NAME:

Spurned Again (Jacob Laksin, 1/13/09, FrontPageMagazine.com)

Stumping for the presidency, Barack Obama relentlessly assailed what he called the Bush administration’s “dangerous and failed foreign policy.” But with the prospect of taking power just weeks away, imitation is proving to be the sincerest form of censure. Just one month after Obama picked a hawkish national security cabinet, retaining some Bush administration personnel in the process, the president-elect has once again signaled that he intends to follow the outgoing administration’s course in the war on terror.

In a Sunday interview with ABC News, Obama revealed that he was unlikely to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in the first 100 days of his presidency. That is a stark climb-down from promises Obama made as recently as November, when he indicated that shutting down Guantanamo would be a top priority.

Proximity to power seems to have had a sobering effect on Obama. “It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize” to close Guantanamo, he explained on Sunday, pointing out, correctly, that its resident detainees are actually “very dangerous.” Obama did not miss the import of that admission, specifically that any closure of the facility would have to be so designed that it “doesn’t result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.” Until such a plan exists, Guantanamo will stay open.

Or, as he's done today, announce that you plan to close. No one is going to hold him to the pledge.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2009 9:44 PM