It’s fatuous to say Obama has embraced W’s policies. That’s simply babble from the right. He has not UTTERLY terminated some programs, but normally, when you scratch slightly beneath the surface you find Obama has moved dramatically away from what Bush did.

For example, Tribunals, Obama decided to not completely do away with them, that’s true, but what the folks like Krauthammer fail to point out is that Obama has said he’ll have no more than 20 cases in front of Tribunals, of 241 total cases Bush would have sent there. That’s a 90% reduction – and of the twenty, it’s entirely possible 13 were already existing cases.

As I recall the rendition quesiton is really the same sort of thing. We’re closing those prisions, (which Bush said he’d do EVENTUALLY), and looking for places to hold the prisoners among our allies in an OPEN way. We have essentially (under Obama) repudiated secret transfers to black site prisons.

While I’m not entirely happy with Obama’s backtracking on some issues (in part), the fact is, in most cases, he took 10 steps forward and 1 or 2 steps back. He’s not on the same line of conduct as Bush, and suggestions that he is are merely more political cover for those who advocate torture, rendition, and US ethno-centric hubris.