No, the NSA programs is not a black eye on Obama.

This is a curious thing.  Many people seem focused on the idea that President Obama is guilty of a lack of transparency and spying on Americans.  But the NSA's actions aren't unilateral decisions made within a fishbowl.

• Multiple Congresses wrote and expanded upon the Patriot Act, granting expansive spying powers and leeway to go after terrorists.
• The Supreme Court allowed for the secretive FISA court and gave the Patriot Act the greenish light to move forward.  FISA court judges approved of every one of these programs now currently outed.
• The Executive branch under George Bush guided Congress towards their desired outcome, and built up the very domestic spying programs currently under fire.

People complain that President Obama hasn't been transparent.  Well, nothing about what the NSA is transparent, so I don't know exactly what anyone expects the White House to do differently.  If people have a complaint about the issue of transparency, they should complain to their representatives, as they're the ones responsible for writing laws, and the President is merely following the rules set up by Congress.

I definitely think these things should be aired out in the open, but Congress is reactionary, not proactive, here, and it should be telling that these people have all along been in the know from regular internal briefings.  When Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall pressed this matter obliquely in public, others just brushed off their concerns.

I was never under any illusion that President Obama was a liberal.  If he was, he would have pushed for universal health care, he would have pushed to ensure that Guantanamo was closed, he would have pushed to boost the top marginal tax rate up to 50% or higher, he would have pushed to end the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security, he would have refused to touch Social Security and Medicare, and he would have demanded action on climate change regulations.

Ron Wyden for President?