As Politico details, and as Abe noted, the Democrats — not those darn Republicans — dealt the administration a “clear setback” by nixing the funds for relocating Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. Harry Reid is issuing “contradictory comments” and Democrats are grousing that Obama “hasn’t done us any favors on this… He’s a little of this, a little of that. The Republicans have one compelling message.” And the Democrats have taken to the airwaves, grumbling that the Obama team never had a clue what to do about Guantanamo.

All of this may be shocking to the chattering class which is amazed that the president isn’t getting his way. But really, did the purveyors of conventional wisdom think Americans would shrug and accept the notion of housing terrorists in their neighborhoods? Only inside the Beltway do all issues become reduced to a popularity contest (“Obama v. Cheney!”) without regard to the merits of the arguments. Certainly the Obama team thought Congress and the public at large would simply accept the illogical proposition that because George W. Bush was unpopular, ending his policy of housing detainees at Guantanamo would be popular and earn the new administration brownie points at home and abroad.

But perhaps the public is over George W. Bush. Maybe they don’t look at every decision and policy as “anti-Bush” or “change from Bush,” but rather on the merits. And when they and their representatives figured out that closing Guantanamo might win plaudits in Europe but mean detainees in their neighborhood, the reaction was swift.

It is a lesson worth remembering for the new administration: rather than being the un-Bush administration they will fare much better by being the pro-national security administration. And that may mean conceding that the Bush administration got some big issues very right.