While there’s some short-term advantage to the ad hoc, make-it-up-as-you-go approach that the Bush Administration has taken, it’s damaging in the longer term. Not only does it undermine our moral authority in trying to hold others to the rule of law but it’s problematic on the domestic front, too. Those who have been perfectly happy to trust Bush to do what he felt best to protect us will likely not be so sanguine if he’s succeeded by a President Obama.