Yesterday, Ramesh pointed out Jack’s TNR essay, which argues that Obama’s policies have made us safer. (David Brooks makes much the same claim, not nearly as well, in his NYTimes column today.) At Powerline, there has been in depth and characteristically thoughtful commentary about Jack’s piece from Paul Mirengoff (here and here) and Scott Johnson (here).

I sent Paul an email — arguing that Pres. Obama’s lurch toward the Bush policies had a lot to do with V.P. Cheney making the public case for these policies — which Paul discussed in his last pertinent post (here). I should be clear that my email was not intended to be a critique of Jack’s article — it was more a reaction to Paul’s take (and it was not a comprehensive reaction to Paul either — he makes a slew of excellent points I didn’t address). I hope to have more to say about Jack’s piece when I can give it the time it deserves. Meantime, I commend Scott and Paul’s analyses.