Barack Obama, only a few days away from taking over the White House, is impressing conservatives more than he is some of those barely able to acknowledge George W. Bush's membership in the human race. You almost wonder if he planned this month as a good-cop, bad-cop routine: Work with me, Republicans, or I'll throw you to the loonies!

We probably may assume no Bush administration official is going on trial for Jack Bauer-like zeal in defense of the country: one reason being the admiration that hard-nosed, Bauer-like attitudes toward bad guys command in the real America.

That conservatives would yearn to beat terrorists within an inch of their lives is high-grade malarkey. It's indisputable that they make room in their worldview for certain harsh necessities -- killing enemies, for instance -- in defense of life and limb. By contrast, liberal ideologues like Michael Ratner live, to all appearances, in Never-Never Land. First they seem to suppose no malign consequences from accommodating enemies. Second, they seem to suppose normal Americans, as they watched those accommodations take shape, would smile patriotically and nod.

The times are out of joint, and not just economically. Who would have supposed, after 9/11, that the hunters of terrorists would command, in some quarters of American life, less concern than the poor, persecuted lambs they hunted to the ends of the earth?

Barack Obama's contribution to American history could consist in saving us from ourselves, and some of our grosser stupidities. On which view he'd better get started. There's a heap of saving out there to be done.