Before he left office Barack Obama commuted more federal sentences than any other president in history, most famously that of former Army Private Bradley Manning, who divulged hundreds of thousands of classified documents and seriously damaged national security.
Drug offenders were also high on Obama’s list. Notably absent was Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, whom Obama ransomed for several notorious Taliban terrorists, and Obama’s National Security Advisor proclaimed an American hero.
Why did Manning get the nod and not Bergdahl?
Obama was far more personally invested in Bergdahl’s case, feting his parents in the Rose Garden upon the soldier’s release from Taliban captivity, and practically groping his mom, which even made liberal columnist Richard Cohen a bit queasy. But in deciphering Obama’s inaction on Bergdahl one first has to adopt the ex-president’s mindset, which might be summarized as “what’s in it for me?”
Obama had little to gain personally from intervening in Bergdahl’s case in his final days in office, despite the high cost we paid to recover the alleged deserter from Taliban captivity, and his own aide’s glowing words about Bergdahl, which surely reflected Obama’s own view at the time.
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