On Obama's FISA statement

And guess what? He's not beside himself with fear that disagreement with his position will cost him the election.

Here's the key part for me:

Now, I understand why some of you feel differently about the current bill, and I'm happy to take my lumps on this side and elsewhere. For the truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions. No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true -- not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down.

I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. I'm certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too. I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue. But I do promise to listen to your concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to change the country.

To no one's surprise, Obama doesn't appear to be in need of defending. He's quite at ease with the fact that there will be disagreements within the family, and doesn't feel compelled to tell anyone to sit in a corner. In other words, he can handle it just fine. Just as his most ardent defenders doubtless knew in their hearts that he could, though they felt moved by the strength of their support to do so, anyway.

Could it be that he in fact does feel the pain very deeply, but dare not let on, for political reasons? Certainly possible. But that would leave us in a very awkward situation, having to consider why our nominee simply can't be straight with us. I prefer to think he's just got a considerably thicker skin than people who don't run for President of the United States, and really means it. Don't you?

On the substance, I continue to disagree with the gloss of the exclusivity provisions. But it should be noted that if a president intends to ignore the law, there's really no way to draft such a provision sufficiently, so it's not a matter of tweaking it or improving it. You either recognize that exclusivity is just so many words so long as we've got a president who is willing to believe he has the "inherent power" to trump any law, or you don't.

I'm also unimpressed by the promise of the report of the Inspectors General, largely because I've been unimpressed with the response of the Congress to all previous such reports, not to mention their inability to actually enforce their own subpoenas.

I'd also note that the promise to conduct a thorough review of all surveillance programs once sworn in is very welcome, though that's not the same thing as saying there will be criminal prosecutions, as some have insisted would be the case. Indeed it might be rather foolish for him to commit to such an investigation before taking office and having the opportunity to review the evidence and the circumstances from the inside. It'd be satisfying as all hell, but I don't think we're going to see that kind of a pledge. As such, future arguments over this issue should probably not turn on promises or even vague hints that such prosecutions are in the offing. They're not, at this point, and though we'd all love to see them, holding out the possibility that they might come through should not be taken as a substitute for a substantive position in favor of the bill. It's a last resort, if anything, and a long shot on top of that. You can't consider your argument won if you're clinging to that sort of a distant possibility.

It was good of Senator Obama to address the subject, and to take notice of the fact that the group of supporters asking him to consider a different position on the upcoming FISA bill had quickly become the single largest group organized on his web site to date. He's not a United States Senator and the Democratic nominee for President for nothing. And neither are the organizers' efforts undeserving of attention.

The substantive differences remain largely unresolved, and likely will remain so. But if Obama wasn't OK with that, he probably wouldn't have run for president. And if you weren't OK with it, you probably wouldn't be participating on blogs.