It's a good thing for America that the GOP field is so comically weak, because Obama's not going to get nearly the level of support from his progressive base in 2012 that he did in 2008.

This all started with the refusal to investigate wrongdoing by the previous administration. At that time, Glenn Greenwald (the author of the piece Bruno linked to) and many others made the case that, by refusing to distance himself from these abuses, and allowing those who committed them to escape prosecution, Obama was taking ownership of them. An action like this proves that theory.

People with security clearances are legally bound to protect classified materials at all times. Bradley Manning knew this, and he had to know he would face prosecution for leaking them as he is alleged to have done. But he had no way of knowing he would be treated like an enemy combatant and stripped of basic human rights. This is beyond shameful, and Obama deserves all of the blame he gets for allowing these policies to continue on his watch, under the banner of "keeping America safe."

I think Obama's domestic policies have been better than I expected. The stimulus was too small, but we did save the auto industry, and we've gotten most of our money back from the bailouts, with more to come. The healthcare bill is basically the Republican plan from the 1990s, but at least we'll cover more people and start to put some downward pressure on costs. I don't think he's done all he could do to advance the policies he said he favored during his campaign, but you also can't discount the impact of how strongly the system favors the status quo with the filibuster and disproportional representation in the Senate.

I can't really say anything good about his performance on matters of terrorism and national security, however. He has completely reneged on his promise to close Guantanamo and he has continued Bush era abuses of detainees. A total failure of leadership for which he deserves every bit of criticism he gets.

I'm glad PJ Crowley came out and said what he said. He had to know he would get into trouble for it, since spokespeople don't get paid to speak their mind, but hopefully he's forced members of the administration to re-evaluate their stance on this issue and perhaps think about not treating an accused leaker like a deadly terrorist. As for Obama, I hope he gets religion on this topic soon, because it's becoming a lot harder for me to tolerate his failing grades on foreign policy, especially when his grades on domestic policy are merely in the C+ range.