One answer to the the question "Why is Barack Obama being praised for taking the same or similar actions that got the former president blacklisted?" is due to the current media coverage or lack thereof today. It seems that most media coverage has been supportive of and possibly even reluctant to criticized president Obama. Very few networks seem to be critical ever of the president. At some point during the Democratic primary for president the media seemed to put their support behind candidate Obama over Clinton. This support appears to have continued through most of the presidents first year in office. While Bush's popularity and support finished at the lowest rating for an outgoing president at 22%, Obama's ratings in most polls in January 2009 were over 60%. This has continued in part because the media is both liberal and mostly Democrat. It is no surprise that any similarities that may be made between Obama and Bush would favor Obama in the majority of the media outlets.
It is true that the media portrayed Bush as the "wealthy Americans" best ally. The criticism the media reported on Bush's bailing out the financial sector/banks seem to have not followed the progress or lack of thereof of the initial $700 billion bailout. It is interesting in an article on March 29, 2010 by Daniel Wagner, an Associated Press Business Writer, of the $700 billion bailout from Bush only $380 billion has been paid out. Of that amount $194 billion has been paid back. That number should grow after the Citigroup sale. Mr. Wagner states these are Treasury Department figures. If my math is right there is $186 billion balance left of which I suspect most will never be recovered. Bush's deficits during his presidency ranged from a low of $158 billion in 2002 to when he left office in 2008 with the second highest deficit recorded during his two terms at over $400 billion. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) numbers for 2009 deficit are estimated to be $1.85 trillion under Obama. Yes, it does seem to be a double standard as you mention that Bush was so heavily criticized and Obama is not.
Obama campaigned on pulling the troops out of Iraq and demonizing those who opposed those efforts. Although he may accomplish this goal it certainly has not been as quickly as he had indicated. Media has not had the same negative reports about this as they had during Bush's final years concerning Iraq. I agree with Obama's effort and support to increase troops in Afganistan. This action is a good one that should help protect the undermined forces there. I'm not sure that war is necessary as you say, but in the case of supporting our troops and the development of a democratic Iraq government it is in our best interest that the US has the needed support in the Middle East other than Israel. I believe the taste of freedom of a democratic society from a tyrannical one will be hard to take away once it is rooted in the Iraq people.
With respects to privacy issues, we as Americans should be able to count on the 4th Amendment to protect the common citizen. The Amendment states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The Obama administration has used the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 to access emails older than 180 days. Some say this is a violation of our 4th Amendment rights. It is interesting that the same privacy issues in our emails are not provided the same protection as we are provided with the mail delivered by the US Postal Service. Recently with regards to wiretapping or surveillance the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memorandum declaring that warrantless surveillance was lawful. These rulings during Obama's administration only back up Bush's policies on surveillance particularly when national security is at stake. My concern is where will the line be drawn now for us the American people. As you stated "where will it end?"
Although these two president do have similarities to be considered as you mentioned with certain educational issues, abstinence and capital punishment, I feel that it is strange to see that Obama has increased deficit spending by near four times, the war efforts have been increased, issues regarding the expansion of governments right to "listen in" are being all but being ignored by the media, and the potential destructive path of the proposed increased spending without so much as minimal exposure in the media worries me. These same topics although equally as important during Bush's terms were used to demonize Bush in the media. Obama seems to have been given a hall pass so far. It seems clear that the actions of this administration have exponentially increased previous policies of Bush's without much criticism.
This administrations finger pointing at the Bush administration are like you say "the pot calling the kettle black." I like another saying "be careful at who you point you finger at because you have three pointing back at yourself".
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