Is it possible Obama's FISA "reversal isn't that bad?

This is not a "defend Obama at any cost" post: Let it be known that, from my point of view, the baseline answer to the titular question is "no, it's not." Obama promised as recently as February to support a filibuster on any bill including retroactive immunity. Several bloggers, including Glenn Greenwald, have comprehensively explored the ways in which this is both disappointing, and not very surprising (in that what-did-you-think-Obama-was-anything-but-a-politician sense).

But.