With regards to Manning, my hope is that on the last day of his term, Obama commutes to time served.

[stevenleser]

65. You're being obnoxious because you can't handle that somoene disagrees with you. It's really simple

I think he did something terribly wrong, I think the act he has been found guilty of deserves a long prison sentence absent mitigating factors.

I think the abuse he has experienced his whole life is a mitigating factor. I think the multiple behavioral issues he has exhibited since joining the army (nothing to do with the transgender factor), the problems with authority, fighting, almost getting kicked out multiple times, means that the army is also partly to blame, as no one with those issues should have been given a security clearance at all. He should in fact have been kicked out of the army in basic training.

Add that all together and you have someone who in my opinion deserves some punishment but not over 6-8 years.

There are people who commit crimes where there are mitigating factors all the time. There is nothing remotely unusual about that.