ABC News Contributor: 'Obama Is Dick Cheney' [View all]

[monmouth3]

ABC News contributor Mary Matalin compared President Obama to Dick Cheney on national security issues on Sunday, setting off a debate between the panel members on "This Week."

The roundtable was assessing the president's speech on Friday about reforms to the National Security Agency. Obama outlined proposals for changes to the NSA's programs, but largely defended the agency's domestic surveillance activities as necessary for protecting national security. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, pointed out that they were the types of programs that Obama used to oppose as a senator.

Mary Matalin compared Obama to Dick Cheney, saying, "He was against it before he was for it. Now Barack Obama is Dick Cheney. He needs these policies, they are necessary for our security."

Fellow panelist Tavis Smiley said he did not agree with Matalin's assessment, but expressed his own doubts about Obama's position on domestic surveillance. "Edward Snowden might be on a postage stamp somewhere down the road," Tavis remarked. "He will be acknowledged ... How history is gonna regard what President Obama has done in this moment is an open question."

She had to be drunk to say this. Rest of article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/obama-dick-cheney-mary-matalin_n_4627955.html