Obama Acts Like Bush, Liberals Suffer “Cognitive Dissonance”

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Damon W. Root @ Reason.com:

Writing in Sunday’s New York Times, Peter Baker reports on the fallout among American liberals after the news broke last week about the Obama administration’s secret memo justifying the use of drones to kill American citizens. Baker writes:

Conservatives complained that if Mr. Bush had done what Mr. Obama has done, he would have been eviscerated by liberals and the news media. But perhaps more than ever before in Mr. Obama’s tenure, liberals voiced sustained grievance over the president’s choices.

“That memo coming out, I think, was a wake-up call,” said Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union. “These last few days, it was like being back in the Bush days.”

“It’s causing a lot of cognitive dissonance for a lot of people,” he added. “It’s not the President Obama they thought they knew.”

Isn’t it a little late for a wake-up call? Obama has already waged a war in Libya without congressional approval, which is a pretty good signal that he takes an expansive view of executive power. And then there’s the fact that Obama rammed several very high-profile government appointments past the U.S. Senate by invoking his recess appointment power when the Senate was not actually in recess—an executive power play that Bush never attempted. But I suppose it’s better late than never when it comes to criticizing presidential overreach.

Unfortunately, as Baker also notes, some of the president’s supporters remain immune to the cognitive dissonance

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I had seen the NYTimes article and was thinking of blogging on it. Also from Politico: What if George W. Bush had done that?

Recall the following statments about N. Korea:
In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama promised that he would “eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.” His campaign manifesto, Change We Can Believe In, described Obama’s North Korea policy, and the philosophy behind it, in great detail:
North Korea is an example where direct, tough diplomacy that lays out clear choices to rogue regimes for good and bad behavior can lead to change. When the United States was engaged, the pace of Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons was slowed; when we were not, it quickened. While there has been some promising progress, it’s important that all of North Korea’s claims are verified. If they are not, we should move quickly to reimpose sanctions that have been waived, and consider new restrictions going forward. As President, Barack Obama will work with diligence and determination with our friends and allied to end the threat of North Korea and to secure a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.
So two nuclear test exposions, an ICBM that will work. and a union address of how he is going to stop this counrty.
:-(-

Conservatives complained that if Mr. Bush had done what Mr. Obama has done, he would have been eviscerated by liberals and the news media. But perhaps more than ever before in Mr. Obama’s tenure, liberals voiced sustained grievance over the president’s choices.

Obama hasn’t done anything even remotely comparable to the full scale invasion and occupation of Iraq.

StGreg: Bush had approval of congress.

GREG
WHERE WOULD HE VINDICATE THE LOST OF LIVES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF AN IMPORTANT STRUCTURE OF AMERICA REPRESENTING THE EXCHANGES OF WHEALTH AND SERVICES IN ALL LEVEL
OF AMERICA, PLUS THE MULTIPLE DEATHS AND DISABILITY OF THOSE BRAVE FIREFIGHTER AND POLICE OFFICERS IN THIS IMPORTANT SECTOR OF AMERICA,
IT COULDN’T BE JUST TAKEN AS A MINOR EVENT,
LIKE OBAMA DID FOR A GRUESOME MURDER OF 4 OF THE BRAVES IN A LAND WHERE THEY FAIL
TO ANSWER THE CALL FOR HELP 7 TIMES SENT TO THE ADMINISTRATION, A LAND
OF SO CALLED DEMOCRACY BEGINNING, WHERE THE GUARDIANS FROM THE LIBYA GOVERNMENT SENT TO PROTECT THE BENGHASI AMBASSADOR AND LOCAL DID COWARDLY FLEW AWAY AT THE SIGHT OF ALQAEDA KILLERS. WHERE NOTHING YET HAS BEEN DONE TO VINDICATE THE MURDERS OF AMERICANS EXCEPT TO SENT THEIR EXPANSIVES 70THOUSAND DOLLAR APOLOGY
FOR A FILM MADE BY AN AMERICAN TO SHOW THE VICIOUS ACTIONS OF THE EGYPT NEW RULER OVER THE CRUCIFICTION OF THE CHRISTIANS, HE WAS EMPRISON IN AMERICA AFTER IT
TO PACIFY THE HATERS, MAKING AN AMERICAN PAY FOR THEIR FAILURE TO BLAME THE MURDERS
OF 4 OTHER AMERICANS.