When Is Obama Going to Start Talking About Bush's 'Dark Side'?

His answer: "There is almost no mention of, let alone focus on, the sheer radicalism and extremism of the last eight years. . . . Our government has systematically tortured people using sadistic techniques ordered by the White House; illegally and secretly spied on its own citizens . . . asserted the authority to arrest and detain even U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and hold them for years without charges. . . ."

None of which, meanwhile, was mentioned during Obama's soaring oratory at the convention, prompting Dahlia Lithwick to head her Slate column: "It's the Constitution, Stupid": "On the streets of Denver," she wrote, "they are protesting Guantánamo, wiretapping, and waterboarding. But inside the hall, you'd think it was just another recession year."

If Barack Obama, the former professor of constitutional law, doesn't wake up in time before Election Day and show the citizenry how he will begin to restore the universal health of our liberties—so radically disabled by his predecessors—we may get lower gasoline prices, along with expanding individual secret dossiers in the bottomless files of the security state. Next week: Planning trials for American war criminals.