[higherpurpose]

I hope Americans can elect a president that will pardon Manning and Snowden in day one of presidency. If a presidential candidate can at least promise to do that, then we'd have a pretty good sense that he or she is going to be a pretty good president regarding government transparency, media freedom, basic rights, and so on.

At the very least the question of pardoning them should be asked in a live televised debate, to see how the candidates stand. If none of them are willing to commit to that, then there's a very high chance US will continue on the dark path is currently on.

[pyre]

Even if said President wanted to do it, I doubt that the military-industrial complex would let him/her. They would burn a lot of political bridges, and possibly end up unable to accomplish anything else of significance during their Presidency.