It would be nice to write a column in praise of President Obama for his vigorous conduct of the war on terror — to praise his willingness to look for “dots” to connect amid all the electronic noise of the communications web. It would be pleasantly nonpartisan to observe that some conservatives are being hypocritical — denouncing Obama for surveillance of millions of Americans while they were content to permit President Bush to do similar things without protest, just as many liberals are doing the reverse.

Three glaring obstacles stand in the way: One is the memory of the casual smears candidate Obama directed at President Bush. The second is the rank abuse of power his administration has demonstrated, which undermines one’s trust that the trove of information the government is sifting will be used only to disrupt possible terror attacks. The third is the administration’s pattern of lying — which undermines any reassurances the president proffers that “nobody is listening to your telephone calls.”