Every president is going to do some things that will disappoint the base who worked so hard to elect him or her. That is one of the inevitable realities of modern politics. I certainly have not expected President Obama to keep every single promise he's made, nor have I expected to agree with every decision he's made. But I did not expect him to end up on the wrong side of such so many core democratic values either. The "indefinite detention" provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) runs as counter to what the Democratic Party claims to stand for as just about anything I've yet seen, and growing numbers of progressives are taking notice.

Rationally, I suspect that President Obama is willing to gamble with the support of his base because his advisors tell him that we have nowhere else to go. He's after the independent vote, and he thinks being right-of-center on many issues is the way to appeal to them. I suspect that this will prove to be a costly miscalculation. Even if he somehow wins the election, what kind of legacy can he possibly have?

On an emotional level, I am extremely disappointed with President Obama. Indefinite detention without due process is not just unconstitutional; it represents a despicable betrayal of a particularly core American value. It almost seems as if he's daring his base to desert him.

Gaius Publius (AmericaBlog) is absolutely correct to say:

At some point, there simply won't be enough Dems who can, in conscience, vote for him, no matter what drek the other side spits up. A huge opportunity to cement party gains, thoroughly wasted.

I am rapidly reaching this point and not just when it comes to the president.

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