Obama shifts on Gitmo, joins public opinion

Yesterday, the Obama administration reversed course and announced they would restart trials at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  While not surprising, it is one of the administration's clearest admissions of err thus far.  Remember, this is the same President whose first executive order (just hours after being inaugurated) was to fully close the Gitmo prison in a year, signed two years ago.

The situation is an apt time to quote the late Irving Kristol, who noted a neoconservative is "a liberal mugged by reality."  Obama clearly took an ideological stance on Gitmo while in the Senate and during his campaign.  When he took on governing realities for the first time, reality quickly educated him on the phrase "necessary evils."  His terrorism policies are not all to different than his much maligned predecessor.

As for the public, majorities generally favor keeping Gitmo open.  While a slim majority (51%) favored closely the facility in January 2009 (during the publicity of Obama ordering its closure), 60 percent thought it should continue operations a little over a year later in March 2010 (CNN).  The latest poll on the subject was a Fox/OD poll in January, finding 53 percent of people "would you like Obama to change his position and keep the prison at Guantanamo open" where as only 31 percent "want Obama to keep his promise and close Guantanamo."

Gitmo is a necessary reality that finally forced Obama to surrender his ideological pretensions.