MICHAEL GERSON: THE PRESIDENT DOES A LOT OF MORAL PREENING BUT NOT MUCH POLICY CHANGING FROM THAT OF HIS PREDECESSOR

Here is how Michael Gerson, a Washington Post columnist, answered a question about Obama’s War on Terror policies from Bob Schieffer on Sunday’s CBS Face the Nation:

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you quickly. The President made a big speech on the war on terror and he says we have to bring this war to an end. But that's easier said than done. What did you take away from the fact that--

MICHAEL GERSON: I'm not even sure he said that, by the way. You know, I'm not sure there was a whole lot of new news in this speech. The President has a way of rhetorically distancing himself from the war on terror while conducting it. He has a way of criticizing the policies of his predecessor while implementing them almost exactly. What we learned from this speech is that he wants to reduce the pace of drone operations from the Obama level to the Bush level, okay? We learned that he wants to close Guantanamo, which he's wanted to do all along but hasn't given the Congress really a viable plan. We learned that he was going to have a special envoy to do this. Well, you had one, actually a very effective one. I think the reality here is that the President, you know, knows that we are going to conduct this war. He doesn't like to talk about it for ideological reasons and so you end up with a significant amount of moral preening and not much policy changing.