Obama's Anti-Terror Program Is More or Less Bush's, Says Book

The fall election campaign is likely to focus on President Obama’s handling of the economy, but there once was a time when the president’s supposed softness on fighting terrorism was considered his biggest political weakness. Just how far Obama has come in this regard—and whether he betrayed his civil libertarian roots—is the leitmotif of Jack Goldsmith’s fascinating Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11.

Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School (the president’s alma mater), minces no words. As a candidate, Obama clearly rebuked the Bush-Cheney policies on spying, interrogation, detention, kangaroo military courts—and torture. And yet, “In perhaps the most remarkable surprise of his presidency,” Goldsmith writes, “Obama continued almost all of his predecessor’s counterterrorism policies.”