May 19, 2009 10:53AM 

# Dick Cheney: Obama’s Enabler 

By [Gene Healy](https://www.cato.org/people/gene-healy) 

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That’s the theme of my [*Washington Examiner* column ](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/GeneHealy/Dick-Cheney-is-becoming-Obamas-enabler-45349127.html)this week:

> Dick Cheney’s “Shut Up and Listen” tour continued last week on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” There, the former veep reiterated his favorite theme: Obama is putting America at risk by “taking down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe.”
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> What in the world is Cheney talking about? Granted, Obama’s anti-terror policies are clouded by rhetorical “Hope” and euphemism, and the new administration is less given to chest-thumping than its predecessor. Otherwise, Obama’s approach to terrorism is virtually identical to Bush/Cheney’s.

Harvard Law prof and former Bush OLC head Jack Goldsmith makes a similar point in [a *New Republic* piece ](http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=1e733cac-c273-48e5-9140-80443ed1f5e2&p=1)out today, though Professor Goldsmith is happier about the continuity than I am. For more, [see Glenn Greenwald](http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/19/obama/index.html).

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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