When the “President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology” issued its report (Liberty and Security in a Changing World) this past week, an honest and objective newspaper headline the next day would have read: “Rogue Panel Reports on Non-Rogue NSA Program.”

To start, almost every one of the panel’s major recommendations is at odds with the policy positions of the administration and its senior intelligence officials—be it, the need for telephony metadata, the party responsible for storing that data, and whether to end the dual-hatting of the director of NSA as also head of Cyber Command. As uncomfortable as the president is already in defending the NSA, one can only imagine how much more uncomfortable he will be with his liberal base if he turns his back on the panel’s recommendations.  But never one to stick to a law or a redline, President Obama was already signaling in Friday’s press conference his willingness to accept a number of the panel’s proposed changes.