The Political Case

A reader writes:

Given that the Bush-Cheney torture program reflected the will of the people at the time, and to your point, reflects a smaller but large chunk of the will of the people today, President Obama's semi-selective enforcement makes sense to me.  Purity to the rule of law in the face of overwhelming popular will is something only for constitutional law professors.

This is a point that a buddy of mine made this morning, and that we see in comments below. Politically, prosecution is a loser. That doesn't make Obama right. But I think it offers an opportunity to examine why it's a loser. We live under The Constitution. But do we all really believe in it?