The Joys of Pragmatism

The New Yorker, February 23, 2009:

"It's possible but hard to imagine Barack Obama as the first President of the United States to introduce a preventive-detention law," [White House counsel Greg:] Craig said. "Our presumption is that there is no need to create a whole new system."

The New York Times, May 21, 2009:

[In his speech at the National Archives, in front of the U.S. Constitution, President Obama:] proposed "prolonged detention" for terrorism suspects who cannot be tried