Quick Takes

Joby Warrick writes in The Washington Post about al-Qaeda’s consternation over our new president. “The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group… . With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world.”

Karen DeYoung and Peter Finn write in The Washington Post that Obama officials are finding that the Bush team had no comprehensive case files on many 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. Astonishingly, some anonymous former officials tell The Post that this highlights the “complexity and dangers” involved in closing the prison.

Erroll Morris, in his New York Times blog, asks the head photo editors of three news services — Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP) and Jim Bourg (Reuters) — to pick the photographs of former president Bush that they believe captured the character of the man and of his administration. Great stuff.

Brian C. Kalt writes in a Washington Post op-ed that George Lardner Jr. was wrong to argue, on the same page two weeks ago, that Bush could legally revoke a pardon he granted to New York real estate developer Isaac Toussie.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. traced the history of blacks at the White House for The Root.

By Dan Froomkin | January 26, 2009; 1:11 PM ET

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