More on Obama's speech

Hilzoy is, as usual, pitch perfect:

Freedom is not always easy, and it is not always safe. Neither is doing the right thing. Nonetheless, we ought to be willing to try. I wish I saw the slightest reason to believe that we are.

To put it bluntly - and I'm not joking - the terrorists won.

As I said yesterday, there were some positive aspects to Obama's speech. His resolve to close Guantanamo in the face of all the fear-mongering, like his release of the OLC memos, is commendable. But the fact that a Democratic President who ran on a platform of restoring America's standing and returning to our core principles is now advocating the creation of a new system of indefinite preventive detention -- something that is now sure to become a standard view of Democratic politicians and hordes of Obama supporters -- is by far the most consequential event yet in the formation of Obama's civil liberties policies.

Our country's populace and political leaders are now united by terror in support of destroying some of our most fundamental principles of freedom. Good job, Bin Laden. Pat yourself on the back.