journalist interested in issues, not personalities.  He wrote extensively and incisively against the policies of bush et al when they were riding high and it was unpopular to do so - and largely proved right.  

To me he is saying that the actual term and all that it implies are foolish:  "war on terror" - much like saying "terror on terror."  But the term is so embedded in our consciousness that we don't question its validity.  To him, Obama is just another equation in the mix - not the end all of American democracy.  Some of us think that way.