Obama Speech Convinces Reid

In his speech today, President Obama defended his commitment to closing Guantanamo, a plan Democrats roundly rejected in the Senate earlier this week—but it's unclear how many people he convinced. After the speech, Senator Harry Reid, who said earlier he would never allow the prisoners to enter the U.S., conceded he is willing to work on a "responsible solution" with the president. Nancy Pelosi said Obama was being "honest" with the American people. Republicans were still forcefully against the idea. "With all due respect to the president, what we need here is not a speech but a plan," Senator Mitch McConnell said. Texas Senator John Cornyn took a swipe at Obama for wanting to fight terrorism using criminal justice laws: "Are we really going to insist that the jihadist with a suitcase nuke captured in Times Square be read his Miranda rights?" he asked. Meanwhile, leaders of liberal groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union all berated Obama for his decision to hold some detainees without trial. "The president wrapped himself in the Constitution and then proceeded to violate it," said the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.