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It is hard to imagine more-sensational charges than the shots exchanged by President Obama and former Vice President Cheney in their back-to-back speeches on May 21.

Obama accused the Bush administration of exploiting alarm and manipulating evidence. "All too often our government made decisions based upon fear rather than foresight." Obama said. "All too often our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions. Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford."

The public seems to agree with Obama when he says, "I think we should look forward, not back."

Cheney was disdainful, even contemptuous, of Obama's accusations. "In my long experience in Washington," Cheney said, "few matters have inspired so much contrived indignation and phony moralizing as the interrogation methods applied to a few captured terrorists. I might add that people who consistently distort the truth in this way are in no position to lecture anyone about 'values.' "

Did the Bush administration torture suspected terrorists? Obama says it did. "Waterboarding violates our ideals and values," the president said last month. "I do believe that it is torture." Sixty percent of Americans agree with him, according to a CNN poll taken last month by Opinion Research. They think that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation procedures are, in fact, torture.

So, do Americans support or oppose the Bush administration's decision to use those procedures? They're split -- 50 percent in favor, 46 percent opposed. Some people who think the methods amounted to torture still favor their use against suspected terrorists. Call it the "Jack Bauer" mentality, for the lead character on the Fox TV show 24. Nearly one in five Americans holds that view.

When the Obama White House released memos with graphic details of harsh interrogation methods, officials might have thought they were providing closure to the debate. But the effect was just the opposite. Some congressional Democrats have called for an investigation of the interrogation regime.

Obama opposes prosecution of the interrogators. As he said on April 21, "For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate for them to be prosecuted." The public agrees. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) oppose a congressional investigation of the interrogators. What if the investigation were done by an independent panel rather than Congress? Sixty-four percent are still opposed.

The president said he is open to an investigation of officials who authorized the use of torture, calling whether to have such a probe "a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws." Slightly smaller majorities of Americans oppose a congressional investigation of officials who authorized the procedures (57 percent) or an investigation by an independent panel (55 percent). The public seems to agree with Obama when he says, "I think we should look forward, not back."

On one issue, Obama has drawn criticism from the Left: his decision not to release photos showing the abuse of prisoners. The most direct consequence of releasing them, the president said, "would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."

Does the American public want to see those photos? The answer is clear: no. By nearly 3-to-1 (73 percent to 26 percent), Americans say that the government should not release photos of U.S. military personnel abusing prisoners. More than 60 percent of Democrats agree, as do 87 percent of Republicans. It is one of the few issues on which there is no big partisan division.

By contrast, the issue of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay elicits a more divided response. In a CNN poll taken early this year, respondents were narrowly divided over closing Gitmo: 51 percent wanted to shut it down "and transfer the prisoners to other facilities"; 47 percent wanted the United States to continue to operate the camp. Two-thirds of Democrats wanted to shutter Guantanamo. Two-thirds of Republicans wanted to keep it open. Independents were evenly divided.

The polls show close and bitterly partisan division over the issue of torture. But they show no division over another issue: Terrorists and torture should be kept far, far away.