That led New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charlie Savage to observe that "the Obama administration is quietly signaling continued support for other major elements of its predecessor's approach to fighting al Qaeda," which was "prompting growing worry among civil liberties groups and a sense of vindication among supporters of Bush-era policies."

In response, I wrote that while I believed "Savage's article is of great value in sounding the right alarm bells, I think that he paints a slightly more pessimistic picture on the civil liberties front than is warranted by the evidence thus far (though only slightly)." Yes, that's correct: Very early on in his administration, I defended Obama from the "he's-just-like-Bush" critique as premature. But six months later, the evidence piled up higher and higher that there was far more continuity with the Bush/Cheney model than almost anyone expected. As a result, I wrote in July that "in retrospect, Savage was right and I was wrong: His February article was more prescient than premature."