THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE THIS. AND THEY WERE RIGHT: Barack Obama: The Covert Commander In Chief. “It’s an interesting anomaly of Barack Obama’s presidency that this liberal Democrat, known before the 2008 election for his antiwar views, has been so comfortable running America’s secret wars. Obama’s leadership style — and the continuity of his national security policies with those of his predecessor, George W. Bush — has left friends and foes scratching their heads. What has become of the ‘change we can believe in’ style he showed as a candidate? . . . Obama is the commander in chief as covert operator. The flag-waving ‘mission accomplished’ speeches of his predecessor aren’t Obama’s thing; even his public reaction to the death of bin Laden was relatively subdued. Watching Obama, the reticent, elusive man whose dual identity is chronicled in ‘Dreams From My Father,’ you can’t help wondering if he has an affinity for the secret world. He is opaque, sometimes maddeningly so, in the way of an intelligence agent.” Frankly, this doesn’t seem such a contradiction: His enthusiasm for deniable takedowns seems quite consistent with his approach to domestic politics.