Obama and the myth of the public opinion excuse

...what were once viewed as controversial right-wing, Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies have been transformed, under Obama, into bipartisan consensus. Whereas the vast majority of Democrats spent the last eight years claiming to vehemently oppose policies such as indefinite detention, military commissions, and secrecy claims, they now actively defend them or (at best) remain meekly silent because it's now their political party, rather than the GOP, that is responsible for them. By embracing as his own many of the very policies he vowed to uproot, Obama has gutted the core of public opposition to those policies...