If he opts for "permanent detention" or, as the Administration likes to put it, "preventive detention," a large slice of his base constituency will go ballistic. So, if he were a cynic, his political calculus might be: "Where can they go?" John McCain?
But if he decides to travel the path of human rights advocates and most of his fellow Constitutional lawyers, he will face the wrath of a Congress - in both parties and in both Houses - whose governing principle is reelection and whose time horizon extends no further
than 2010 mid-terms. And these are the people he needs to transform
the "change we can believe in" into law. But not in their backyards!
Not an easy choice. In order to govern, a president has to win. Is this tug-of-war winnable? How? You tell me - I'd love to hear from you, gentle readers.
Meanwhile, maybe we should all be happy we're not the president.
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