Obama's one track mind and the two track solution

W. Thomas Smith interviews Dick Morris on his new book The Fleecing of America.

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There is however “one fundamental element” related to national security that Obama would indeed change.

“He does not believe in the two-track investigative-prosecutorial system [where one track pursues admissible evidence for criminal prosecution, and the other track pursues intelligence to break up terrorist activity before terror strikes],” says Morris. “What Obama is basically saying is that even if we are just gathering intelligence with no intention of admissing that intelligence into court, we have to follow all the constitutional norms of the fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments.”

For instance, Obama opposes wiretapping without warrants, launching investigations without notification, “and he basically lauded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing-investigation, which was conducted according to those rules, and sets that up as a model,” says Morris. “Pres. Bush, on the other hand, says his priority is not locking a guy up so that he does 10 to 20. His priority is stopping the guy from blowing us up,” which despite Bush’s shortcomings, he has indeed accomplished.

As Morris explains, the current administration’s approach both protects the constitution and prevents evidence obtained through the naturally-shadowy world of intelligence-collection from being used in criminal prosecution unless the intelligence-peg fits into the hole of fair-play evidence collection.

Moreover, the two-track system strengthens our intelligence arm, feeds the intelligence community’s information channels, and dramatically increases our ability to thwart terrorist attacks long before they become operational. And because the two-track system is technically following the letter of the law – intelligence prevented from being used as evidence if it is improperly obtained – the constitution is not violated.

“Obama would change this,” says Morris.

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There is more.

This is an important point that Obama and many liberals just do not seem to comprehend. Their lawfare approach to a war is a huge mistake that gives advantages to the enemy that will get Americans killed and gives no additional protection to Americans. It is just one of many issues that McCain and the Republicans need to focus on this election. I think blue collar voters are more likely to comprehend this distinction than many "intellectuals."