IS HE NAIVE OR CUNNING?

(sigh)

I'm not gonna start harping about Obama before he's had the sheets changed at least once in the private residence in the White House, but......

I AM beginning to wonder if he is most likely the cagiest pol in decades. He can't possibly be naive enough to think that the bad asses at Gitmo will fit right into prison society in the States, or worse yet, that we should ship them out to other countries where they can join up once again with al-Qaida. Campaigning hard for the shut-down of the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Obama has made good on his promise to take steps to close it down -- within a year, he says. This after a report surfaced this week that Prisoner #372 who was released from Gitmo a year ago is now the #2 guy for al-Qaida in Yemen. And #372 was considered one of the LEAST dangerous prisoners at Gitmo, which was why we allowed his release.

The liberals and tree-huggers out there need a dose of reality, and quick. All of Obama's rhetoric and wild-ass promises during the campaign produced a following the likes of which we have never seen before. Most of us would like for all the things he promised to be reality if reality is what they were based on. But merely slapping the wrists of terrorists, ignoring our emergency energy situation by banning off-shore drilling, risking constipating our health-care system by socializing medicine -- all these things are wrong-headed and will put us on the path of no return. Some will say we were already headed down the wrong path with the past administration, but I say "no." Bill Clinton's push for housing loans to minorities, whether they could afford them or not, and Barney Frank's lisping squawks to further Clinton's directive, was the top domino in the credit crisis.

No, I think Obama is smart enough to know that a lot of what he proposed during his campaign will never come to pass, and I believe he's known it from the very beginning. But he's slick, and he knows his peeps will support him regardless. His eloquence will allow him to roll a change of heart right past most without their even knowing it.

But SOME of us will be watching.

(sigh)