A Different Perspective on Obama's Torture Stance

Courtesy of a Daily Dish reader. Money quote:

The prosecutions you are asking for would simply swallow the Obama presidency whole. It is the kind of energy draining, oxygen consuming drama that is the nightmare of every president. It would come to define his presidency in the same way the Hostage Crisis defined Carter’s and there is zero chance he will opt for this. President Obama is making a realistic, cold, clear-eyed cost-benefit analysis.

This is the choice: Does he fix the economy, fix healthcare, get a handle on the two wars he’s dealing with, or does he prosecute Bush era war crimes? He has chosen his agenda and is asking us to choose that to.

Come to think of it, back during the campaign last July, I criticized Obama's defense of the warrantless wiretapping scandal. He has political obligations to those who helped him get elected. Certainly, as this reader wrote:

Imagine what such prosecutions would entail: years of courtroom drama, depositions, lawsuits and counter-suits; the long parade of powerful and high ranking ex- and current members of government, including a goodly number of Democrats, being called on the carpet and having to testify against one another; the enormous rancor and bitterness. This would be Watergate on steroids.

If he were to push for a purge of the government's involvement in creating a torture regime under Bush/Cheney, he would do serious damage to his own party, and perhaps to his reelection prospects. I think this reader is onto something.