Was BO naive or was he telling people what they wanted to hear?

What do you do when you learn that your guy took you on "a magic carpet ride" during a long campaign?

What do you do when your guy shifts on you?

I guess that you get angry or go into the "explanation mode".

The Code Pink Ladies are mad:

"A leader of the antiwar group Code Pink said she now wonders at what point her organization should begin to refer to Mr. Obama as a "war criminal."

The explanation mode goes like this: Our guy has "evolved".....or he has "different information" now that he is in The White House!

Funny. They never gave Bush the benefit of the doubt on the terribly difficult decisions that he had to make!

I don't recall any of the "yes we can screamers" ever saying that Bush had a difficult job or horrible choices!

It is true that Pres BO has access to info that candidate BO did not.

I'm OK with that.

I'm not suggesting that presidents should keep every promise that they make. Things do change!

Nevertheless, shouldn't Pres BO apologize to Pres Bush after these reversals?

For example, BO could say:

"I have new information and regret all of those politically motivated attacks on Pres Bush!"

Or he can say:

"I am sorry when I attacked Pres Bush on GITMO and tribunals.....I understand now how difficult the presidency is!"

Or he could say:

"I couldn't get the Europeans to send troops to Afghanistan either....maybe this is more complicated than just saying that we need to restore our place in the world."

The Hill has an interesting observation:

"Less than six months into an administration that promised to be the sunny morning to the darkest night of the Bush administration, Obama has been accused of something unthinkable on that cold January day when he placed his hand on the Bible and became commander in chief.

He's being compared to George W. Bush."

Andy McCarthy nails Pres BO and the White House on their efforts to find differences between their approach and the one that they ran against:

"For all the airy talk about "reforms" necessary to "restore the Commissions as a legitimate forum," Obama's proposed reforms are trivial."

Jennifer Rubin has a few thoughts on all of the reversals:

"We’ve heard the cliché: there is a difference between campaigning and governing.

But in the last few weeks the contrast between the two could not have been more stark.

And the gap between President Obama’s effectiveness at the former and shakiness at the latter is coming into focus."

Gerald Warren from the UK has a thought:

"The other influence that is causing Obama to flip-flop on policy is simply increasing exposure to the realities of government.

His latest about-turn on Friday, reinstating a limited number of military trials at Guantanamo, is a reflection of that surrender to reality.

Already, the liberal fantasy that dominated American politics last November is being dispelled.

Welcome to the real world, Mr President."

What's going on? New reality? OK.

Political cynicism? Yes and yes!

I think so.

The 2008 BO campaign was one of the most obvious example of telling people what they wanted to hear.

BO was either extremely naive or had to know that he was telling the "yes we can" screamers what they wanted to hear.

Didn't BO know that he was going to have to reverse himself once he got into The Oval Office?

Again, was he that naive or that cynical?

My money is on cynical!

How did he do it?

He is a good speaker and the news media did not challenge him at any point. BO was allowed to get away with generalities and generalities during the long campaign.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain were the victims of a media totally in the tank for BO.

Let's do it again and give Pres Clinton credit for calling BO a "fairy tale".

We don't usually agree with Pres Clinton but we feel his pain when he said this: