Scary and contemptible in equal measure: the President’s repeated platitude, in the context of waterboarding, that (I paraphrase) the most important way to keep the US safe is not to abandon its “core values”.

How do you make sense of this infantile remark? Of course, on one level it’s true: what’s to disagree with? If disemboweling children was US policy, the country could expect trouble. But on every other level it’s a vapid and foolish observation. If it means anything at all, it means: the most effective way of keeping America safe is to forbid waterboarding and similar practices. Now, that’s self-evidently so mendacious as to be downright mischievous – coming from the chief executive on such an important topic. As if a terrorists would respectfully back off if “enhanced interrogation techniques” are abandonned! Yet Obama said it.

And it’s a classic example of Obama’s tendency to utter bullying platitudes to shut down debate.