The Buck Stops There

So up until now, Obama has done pretty good with the buck stops here crowd, whoever they are. That ended with the about face on trying to prosecute Bush administration officials. Now afraid to evoke the wrath of the left, he has thrown his own Attorney General under the bus, and washed his hands of responsibility.

Originally Obama says that there will be no prosecutions. Then the torture memo's are released, wildly misreported, and Obama says there will be no prosecutions. Then the angry left catches rabies, and Obama says.... well, what I meant by not prosecuting anyone is just that "I" will not prosecute. My Attorney General might though. Smile for the camera.

Wildly misreported you say? Well yes, but I cover that in the post following this one. Suffice to say three people were water boarded. The last water boarding took place in 2003. Thousands of lives in LA may have been saved.

Back to the subject at hand, allegedly, a president has never attempted prosecution of a previous president's administration. Even Nixon and Clinton's administrations were left alone, though there were plenty of prosecutions and convictions while they were both still president. This would be the first time. The question Obama needs to be asking is, will his passing of the buck open the door to many more to follow, as president after president tries to exact a share of revenge for their followers, taken out of the hide of the opposing party previously in power.

Obama's calculating enough to know this can only go so far. His public needs some red meat, so expect after a few weeks some new bone thrown to the left to get them off their current fever. Right now, according to Rasmussen, 58% of the public is unhappy with his decision to release the memo's, and you can bet that plurality is not lost on him. So the left is mad that he hasn't already started trials, and the right and center are questioning just whose side is he on. Some political acrobatics may be called for to get the left off chasing something else while at the same time putting the middle at ease that he is in fact on their side.

Add into the equation that he has, in the past, left the door open for his own administration to use harsh questioning techniques. Even though he has recast the War on Terror as a police action, Obama is not one to restrict the potential activities of his own administration. Remember that "Torture", as defined by the media, is not just water boarding. Serving bland food is also "Torture". I'm not kidding.

So chalk up two tactical errors for Obama. Letting the memos out was one. Now he has to somehow deal with the left's faux outrage, as if we just learned about water boarding for the first time, while pirouetting to assure the center that sanity will prevail. The second was turning this over to his Attorney General. So much for sanity. Many people are unaware of the Attorney General's previous statements calling Americans "cowards". Statement's he has made recently, since becoming Attorney General. The media covered that up, keeping it from blowing up in Obama's face, but this is an AG who needs to keep a low profile for awhile. Giving the AG such a high profile decision, welcomes a second chance for the AG's absurd statements to become part of the discussion.

After bending to his supporters, and then passing the buck to his AG, the next step in the ballet will be to throw a new bone to the left that doesn't offend the center so much. Then his AG will be instructed to keep mum, and see if the flames can be brought back down to a low setting. Eventually a position paper will be issued saying that water boarding is bad, but no clear violation of laws were broken, which is correct by the way, and we (they) are putting this dark period in American history behind us (ie- the saving of thousands of lives in Los Angeles).

Let the ballet begin.