Obama on Surveillance, Then and Now

Throughout his Senate career, Barack Obama was a fierce critic of surveillance efforts in the Patriot Act, and he vowed during the 2008 presidential campaign to end “illegal wiretapping,” casting the question of liberty versus security as a “false choice.” But over his years in the White House, Mr. Obama has increasingly spoken of needing to “make some choices as a society,” as he did on Friday when he addressed revelations about data collection of phone and Internet records by the National Security Agency.