Bush Follows Obama - Again

Some encouraging news from the terror war: the U.S. is now raiding into Pakistan to pursue the Taliban and al Qaeda. This policy - resisted by Bush for a very long time in deference to Musharraf - was apparently long championed by Bob Gates and is now in effect:

Until now, allied forces in Afghanistan have occasionally carried out airstrikes and artillery attacks in the border region of Pakistan against militants hiding there, and American forces in “hot pursuit” of militants have had some latitude to chase them across the border.

But the commando raid by the American forces signaled what top American officials said could be the opening salvo in a much broader campaign by Special Operations forces against the Taliban and Al Qaeda inside Pakistan, a secret plan that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has been advocating for months within President Bush’s war council.

This is very good news. It's also a policy - like the withdrawal timetable and like talking to Iran - in which Barack Obama was ahead of the Bush administration. If his judgment is so faulty, why do the wiser heads in the Bush administration keep following it?