Promises Made, Promises Broken

Barack Obama has decided to continue to use the Bush administration's military commission system to try terrorist detainees, with some minor modifications. For something Obama called "an enormous failure" in the presidential campaign, this is another staggering flip flop.

It is further evidence of the poisonous political culture the Democrats created during the Bush administration, to create false or exaggerated differences with George Bush over national security to create a political advantage.

The doubts sown about our anti-terrorism efforts, and the resulting electoral success of the Democrats, demonstrates the perverse "effectiveness" of such a strategy.

The "price" for this success: undermining our success against terrorists and their state supporters, and weakening our political system where electoral games take priority over real leadership.