Politico: Obama-knows-best a Bust

[The Prof]

“Trust me” is President Barack Obama’s preferred mode of action in times of crisis — and his go-to comment to nervous staffers has always been some version of “Relax, I got this.”

But that message is an increasingly hard sell for Obama in his second term, following revelations that the man who once railed against the Bush administration over civil liberties abuses has himself surreptitiously quarterbacked the greatest expansion of electronic surveillance in U.S. history.

Obama’s call for trust, patience and near blanket secrecy is increasingly falling on deaf ears in his own party, spurring a backlash among Democrats who say it’s time for the “most transparent president in history” to provide the American people with a comprehensive explanation of a secret program that dragnets most phone records and much of the Internet.

So far, Obama and his aides have resisted that call: He’s intent on defending the national security powers of the presidency and simply believes that nobody alive has his unique capacity — as a chief executive and law professor — to strike the appropriate balance between civil liberties and public safety, according to people close to him.

But Obama’s own allies say his day of reckoning is nigh.

“The president or his people need to be more forthcoming. … Look, we understand the need for secrecy, I get it, but the fact is we also need a lot more transparency on the process,” said Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who has joined a bipartisan group of eight senators in calling on the White House to declassify legal decisions that allowed the wide-net phone and Internet surveillance revealed in bombshell stories by the U.K.-based Guardian and The Washington Post last week.

“I’m not sure people are confident that the administration has this totally under control,” he told POLITICO. “It seems that there’s something new every day — the IRS, this — and that’s giving people lack of confidence in government. … This is the kind of stuff people used to only see in the movies, that the government can listen to everybody’s calls.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who called for a re-examination of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law on which the the surveillance is based, told MSNBC that the White House had created the system with “secret legal interpretations” and had given “the public no chance to examine it.”

fair use here requires me to summarize the remaining two and a half pages

the constitutional law prof cum cic is uniquely positioned---to arm wrestle in public against himself

the prez and his staff have engaged in a grand "debate" over "balance"

"but he and his aides have repeatedly refused to disclose the safeguards created to prevent illegal snooping on innocent americans, arguing that obama can be trusted to create that balanced system in secret"

tuesday the aclu filed suit (as did freedom watch on the other side) "even as the white house refused to answer questions about the legal rationale behind the programs, the specific mechanisms for protecting the general public from illegal intrusions or even whether obama planned to address the american people on a topic with far-reaching historical significance"

obama "welcomes the debate" about all the stuff americans can't really and fully debate cuz he's kept so many secrets

"a maddening catch 22"

(david corn calls it kafka, ron fournier says alice in wonderland)

"under obama admin officials, citing natl security concerns, have classified nearly every aspect of the system---including its legal rationale"

"a little too confident in their own judgement, a little too smug"

the white house attitude is: if you knew all we were doing you'd thank us and sigh in relief

"but if you have no transparency you can lead yourself to the conclusion---the wrong conclusion---that you’ve got it just right simply because there’s no one around to tell you it’s wrong”

for all the criticism, obama remains "supremely confident in his own capacity to solve the problem"

this is his "wheelhouse"

he's got "as good a handle on it as anybody"

he's chin-strokingly fascinated by what he sees as this compelling 21st century problem

but his determination to go this alone reflects his "growing allegiance to his office" and a "determination not to cede executive power to the other branches"

strobe talbot, former editor of time and bill clinton's deputy secty state, calls obama's "the most white-house-centric presidency since nixon"

"obama's behavior is very reflective of the desire to control decision making"

obama resists calls from critics to address the american people directly, as carney rebuffs the corps and redirects em to the agencies directly involved

the white house also wants to cite "exhaustive" congressional and judicial oversight

but "increasingly they are pointing to the polls---and supportive statements from republican hawks---to defend obama"

which makes dems "uncomfortable"

"you know you're in uncharted territory when boehner calling snowden a traitor is the best news of the day," said one white house source

Obama-knows-best goes bust - Glenn Thrush and Jennifer Epstein - POLITICO.com

 

[The Prof]

i can find you a dozen articles in the last week---usatoday, wapo, cnn, the newyorker, nyt, ap, etc---expounding on this exact same theme around obama: trust

as for oversight:

“I can assure you the phone number tracking of non-criminal, non-terrorist suspects was not discussed [at the administration's classified briefings],” said [Congressman Aaron] Schock. “Most members have stopped going to their classified briefings because they rarely tell us anything we don’t already know in the news. It really has become a charade.”

Lawmakers rebut Obama's data defense - Reid J. Epstein - POLITICO.com

"By the way,” [Senator Jeff] Merkley continued. “When I sought information [on the phone surveillance program], the only information I got was that, yes there is a program sweeping up broad amounts of data through the records act. This second thing, which we just learned about, called PRISM, I had no idea about.”

Dem. Senator disputes Obama's claims that Congress was briefed

The only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

U.S. is spying on Web servers - Philly.com

“Regarding phone records, he has attended classified briefings on the Patriot Act, but the content of those briefings, including whether or not they covered the Executive Branch’s interpretation of Section 215, is classified,” Slevin [spokesperson for congressman keith ellison, the only muslim on capitol hill] said.

Obama's claim that every member of Congress was briefed on telephone surveillance - The Washington Post FactChecker

the judiciary?

US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining | World news | guardian.co.uk

Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance | Mother Jones

 

[The Prof]

the polls:

cbs says 58 to 38 americans oppose "collecting the phone records of ordinary americans"

75 to 20 approve of "collecting the phone records of people the government suspects of terrorist activity"

republicans 66 to 33 oppose collecting records of ordinary neighbors and friends, indies break 62 to 34 the same way, dems are split 48 to 48

are you concerned about losing privacy?

yes, 59 to 40

Most disapprove of gov't phone snooping of ordinary Americans - CBS News

rasmussen finds americans oppose, 59 to 26, "collecting phone records for natl security purposes regardless of whether there is suspicion of wrongdoing"

59% Oppose Government