Monday, June 06, 2005

Tortured Response

A number of left-of-center bloggers have expressed concern about Illinois Senator Barack Obama's comments in this email exchange published on Body and Soul. Obama is being criticized for not taking reports of torture by the CIA, the troops and the administration seriously enough (I think).

I'm not sure I get that from Obama's words. He condemns the actions of those caught and says it is not the policy of the United States to use or condone torture. I think he is speaking for the U.S. at large and not specifically the Bush administration. Now you can argue that he should have been bolder in calling the administration on the carpet but I think he was just playing politician and avoiding the harder issue by condemning the actions of those already known to have committed crimes.

I'm actually more impressed that an emailer got such a personal response (i.e. not a form letter). And I'm even more impressed, if true, that Obama actually went out and read the blog item the writer referred to. Agree or disagree with him, Obama seems genuinely interested in being responsive to his constituents.

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