On Wednesday, I appeared on MSNBC opposite Adam Serwer of The American Prospect to debate President Barack Obama’s failure to make good on a campaign pledge central to his shallow promise of “change:” the closure of Guantanamo Bay and the ‘necessary’ dismantling of the Bush-era detention policies.

Despite Serwer’s protestations, there is very little question that President Obama has a Gitmo problem.

This Administration is battling significant headwinds on a number of fronts, the greatest of which perhaps is that Americans by more than a 2-to-1 margin in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll oppose the closing of Guantanamo Bay. Coupling this with the fact that many in the President’s own party demand an immediate closure of the controversial detention facility, and the President is forced to do some difficult political calculus that likely leaves the progressive wing of his party out in the cold.

It’s really no secret that this White House’s policy initiatives are almost exclusively poll-driven, particularly defense-related issues. President Obama has been quietly moderating his position on a series of Bush policies since assuming office in January, including the suspension of extrajudicial military commissions and the release of torture photos.

But while these new polls are certainly damaging to the President’s agenda, what is most damaging is the hemorrhaging of Administration officials who have abandoned their posts after disagreements with White House political brass.

Phillip Carter, who was formerly a fierce critic of the Bush administration’s detention policies, abruptly resigned Tuesday from his Pentagon Post, launching speculation from all sides that the White House was further hedging on its promise to close Gitmo.

Carter’s statement read that he was resigning for “personal and family reasons,” but most astute observers recognized this as typical Washington parlance for internal disagreements. This speculation of ideological growing pains and internal friction was compounded by the fact that Carter resigned only days after President Obama confirmed to Beijing press that the White House would miss its self-imposed January 22nd Guantanamo closure deadline.

Obama’s transition advisors floated the notion that then-President-elect Obama would begin symbolically dismantling the Bush-era detention policies by issuing a closure of Gitmo on Day One of his Administration. It’s now nearly twelve months later and Gitmo is still open.

The image Obama cultivated over the course of last year’s campaign was such that then-Senator Obama was an idealist, a civil libertarian, and a constitutional law professor. As it turns out, as President, Mr. Obama is far more concerned with political expediency than idealism.