This is basically it:
The detention policies followed centuries of precedent in American conflicts, as well as the rules of war concerning illegal combatants. We have never used the federal courts to adjudicate detentions abroad from military and intelligence operations during wars in the past. Even the Nuremberg trials, the supposed gold standard of the species, were military tribunals with no rights of appeal. The allegations of “evil” and “anti-American” were always sheer demagoguery. Obama found that out the hard way, and finally had to acknowledge reality.
The timing is spectacularly foolish. It had to be inadvertent, but it’s extraordinarily self-defeating for the reasons Scarborough and his panel cite. Obama campaigned on change, and has delivered continuity instead in the very policies that his supporters detested. But most damaging, it exposes Obama as a demagogue at the very launch of his next campaign. Even apart from the apologies Obama owes to Bush, Cheney, and the American people, why should anyone believe a word he says as a candidate ever again?
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“The allegations of ‘evil’ and ‘anti-American’ were always sheer demagoguery. ”
They were uttered by a candidate with huge gaps in his knowledge. Those gaps have been corrected (we hope).