LOOK BACK TO PROSECUTE: OBAMA'S SUBTLE STRATEGY?

From time to time, as various commentators have multiplied daily instructions to Obama about what to do, it has occurred to me that they mght be having some difficulty dealing with him because he is smarter than they are: smarter than David Brooks, for example, and smarter than Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. Relfecting on my post yesterday under the title "Look Back to Prosecute," I wonder if I myself have been caught off guard and failed to allow duly for his subtlety. He is more than smart enough to know that it is a bad argument to say that going back to the past would be accomplish nothing in dealing with crimes like torture; and smart enough to have thought of the obvious rebuttal, which is pointing out that, generally speaking, crimes of all sorts have to be investigated and prosecuted by going back to the past. Has he set things up so that he is on record as being strongly disinclined himself to generating prosecutions of the people responsible for policies of torture; but ready to accept an independent decision to proceed by the Attorney General (or by Congress)? If so, he may succeed in minimizing the rage that will be directed at him regarding this issue by people who supported the former administration; and at the same time minimizing the opposition, strong among some of his key supporters, to letting the torture-generators off with impunity. He will be in a more favorable position to push for his grand reforms in health care, education, and energy.