Well....Duh

U.S. President Barack Obama while signing executive orders about the closing of the military prison at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, in the Oval Office on second official day at White House in Washington, January 22, 2009.
REUTERS/Larry Downing

The White House is only now admitting to this?

With little hope for meeting President Obama's deadline for closing the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, a new message is emerging from the administration: Disregard our timetable.

"We're not focused on whether or not the deadline will or won't be met on a particular day," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Maybe they shouldn't have had the big photo-op EO signing, then.

Benchmarks...timetables.....broken campaign promises from the Pied Piper of Hope and Change....oh well.

Shutting the prison at Guantanamo Bay was a key Obama campaign promise.

"He'll catch it from the liberal Left but not from anyone else," said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida. "I don't think it hurts him too much, because the public wants to keep that prison open."

Oh, he may be catching it from the looney left; but the right's not going to let him off the hook either on this, just because he couldn't check Guantanamo off from his agenda wish list. After all, his heart is still in the wrong place on this.

Another unresolved issue is how and where to prosecute those ready for trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants them tried in U.S. federal courts, and not in tribunals, which have different rules for testimony, evidence and appeals.

"With the closure of Guantanamo must also come the end of the policies that the prison has come to represent, such as indefinite detention without charge or trial," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project. "It would be unacceptable to close Guantanamo only to institute the same policies elsewhere."

Guantanamo remains the least bad option.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces