He's no hero. He's a very intelligent man. After all, he made it into Harvard Law School and Law Review, which only the top tier students manage to do. He knew what his advisors were saying, and is well informed of consequences. All pols are compromised when it comes to authority and how they wield it, and demonstrate a great loss of moral authority in that process. Obama is much better than a lot of pols, but that isn't really saying much when you view him in context of ethics as they are understood outside of politics.