Obama has posted a response to the critics of his position on the FISA "compromise" that is, really, just what we would expect: he understands the objections to retroactive immunity and will work to strip that from the bill. Meh -- not quite as strong a position as I would hope. In fact, not nearly as strong as I would want, given his comments about the supremacy of the FISA court, since I'm not at all convinced that the court will, in fact, be independent in important respects, but I could be wrong on that.
What's important is that Obama did respond, explained his position, and promises to keep listening. (One comment: the response is cast as a message to his supporters; I don't think that's where all the criticism came from. You can be on the left -- and it's strange to think that support for constitutional guarantees of liberty places one on the "left" in this country -- on certain issues and not support Obama, except as the best of a bad lot.) Can you imagine George W. Bush doing anything like that?
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