This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, November 11th, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Barack Obama has been thus far a pragmatic politician,

but that pragmatism has cut both ways on civil liberties

Obama was for example against warrantless wiretapping before he voted for it

but he does support shutting down Guantanamo Bay.

But will that pragmatism yield dividends for opponents of the drug war?

Drug policy reformers scored victories on election day.

Will Obama's pragmatism mean a stepping down of the federal drug fight

when it conflicts with state law?

Tim Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice,

comments on the opportunities and risks to civil liberties

from the incoming Obama administration.

Well there's a broad range of issues obviously for Obama coming in in his team.

They have a range of civil liberties issues that they're going to have to deal with.

Are they going to close Guantanamo? Are they going to start treating the prisoners differently?

Obama has said something like he's going to shut down the military trials that are going on at Guantanamo right now.

He has said that they should either be tried in civilian court or before courts marshal.

So these are some of the changes that he'll be making

or confronting when he actually assumes office.

And the drug war?

The drug war, well, one of the first issues we're looking for an Obama administration to do

...