It's a long, long race

President Obama is receiving a fair amount of flack from the left regarding his apparent about-face on the release of additional Abu Ghraib prison abuse photographs, his appointment of General Stanley McChrystal - a man who appears to be tainted by the Tillman cover-up and Bush-era prisoner abuse - to head military operations in Afghanistan, his foot-dragging on the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and his disinterest in a Truth Commission.  Just go and read Glenn any day of the week for the latest round of liberal disappointment.

From a pure sense of justice, I would prefer to see something different on all of those examples above. And, let me be clear, the voices criticizing the President about this are right.

But I don't think Barack Obama is anything different than what I assumed all along - incredibly smart, pragmatic and, most of all, careful.  And all of these actions can be explained by the same need: to build the confidence of the military commanders and the Pentagon so that they will be willing to follow him and trust his leadership.  That requires some give and take.  Rather than coming in as a crusader, he is coming in as their new leader.  He will win their confidence, and then begin to enact reforms. Anything else would doom his efforts.  At the same time, he is securing the political "middle-ground," showing he is not a pawn of any perceived extremists (despite the fact that I do believe the "left" has the moral high-ground here).  And so we wait a bit for change, because it's the only way real change can come.

Only time can tell if my assessment is correct.