"Bad as Bush"

Kevin Drum articulates something I was trying to put into words during an argument I was having a couple of weeks ago.

This is, needless to say, one of the things I was thinking of yesterday when I mentioned Obama's "weak record on civil liberties." In a way, of course, it's unsurprising. Not, I think, because newly elected presidents "invariably become quite enamored of executive power once they settle into the Oval Office chair," as James Joyner says. But because newly elected presidents routinely find it almost impossible to buck a national security establishment when that establishment unanimously opposes something. And I have little doubt that the entire national security establishment of the United States (and probably a few other countries as well) is dead set against ever allowing the public to know exactly what happened at those black sites. I don't think there's a president ever elected who's been able or willing to stand up against this kind of united front.

That's not to defend Obama. It was still his decision, and it's an odious one. But until, as a country, we come to our senses on national security, it's not going to matter very much who's in the Oval Office. The system is stronger than the man.