Obama Rhetoric-Bush Policies

One of the chief themes of President Obama's first year in office is "repairing America's battered image," i.e., battered by George W. Bush. If you don't believe me, ask the New York Times:

With his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Obama took another step toward repairing America's battered image.

This theme depends largely on a confidence in the power of rhetoric. The idea is that Obama can repair America's image by a certain kind of speech, less "bombastic and bullying," perhaps less arrogant, than that of our 43^rd President. I am an admirer of great rhetoric, and maybe it has that power, but one should think that actions count for something. Here is the Times again, slavishly imitating Obama's rhetoric:

Let's be clear: Mr. Obama has made enormous progress in the short eight months since he took office. He has overturned some of the most odious Bush-era policies: banning torture and pledging to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He has persuaded the world once again to hear, and to listen to, what America has to say, but he is still figuring out how to fully capitalize on that good will and credibility.

Let's be clear: what is mentioned here is scarcely evidence of "enormous progress." For the sake of argument, let's accept the "banning torture" item. The only other actual difference between Bush policy and Obama policy is "pledging to close the prison at Guantánamo." Does a pledge, in the absence of action or a coherent plan of action, amount to progress?

Isn't it more important that President Obama has decided to continue the Bush Administration policy on which the Guantánamo detentions were based? Here is the Washington Post:

The Obama administration has decided not to seek legislation to establish a new system of preventive detention to hold terrorism suspects and will instead rely on a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing military force against al-Qaeda and the Taliban to continue to detain people indefinitely and without charge, according to administration officials.

We have a lot of detainees at Gitmo who, for various reasons, can't be tried in an ordinary court, but are too dangerous to release. The Administration had announced its intention to seek new legislation from Congress cover such a situation, but quickly discovered that the activist core of his own party was vehemently opposed to that. So it has decided to fall back on the Bush Administration policy, one based on the 2001 authorization of military force. We are going to keep these people in the slammer (which slammer remains to be determined) indefinitely without charges or trial.

It is interesting that the Hard Left in America considers this a victory. See The American Prospect:

This development marks a pretty significant victory--if not the end of the war--for civil liberties advocates, who had been fighting furiously against any attempt to pass a new preventive detention law.

This is what civil liberties advocates consider a victory? Obama morphing into Dubya? Anyway, it seems to shine a new light on the President's nearly famous lines:

So for those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions that we have taken in just nine months.

Well, this was a concrete action, and it cemented the policy of his predecessor on something important. If we want to believe that the President has redeemed America in the eyes of the world, we will have to trust to his words rather than his deeds.