Critics scoff at Mr. Obama’s professed desire for a debate.

“When he says he wants to have a debate on this issue, he passed on every opportunity to have a debate about it,” said Jennifer Hoelzer, a former aide to Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who has been a top critic of the secret programs. “You had to wait until someone illegally disclosed it? That seems disingenuous.”

Jameel Jaffer, a top official at the American Civil Liberties Union, said a genuine debate was difficult as long as so much information still remains secret.

“The president said he welcomes a debate and we welcome one, too, but it’s very hard to have one when so much information is classified,” he said. “Information that’s been released through unofficial channels in recent weeks makes clear that what was being withheld should never have been classified in the first place.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Marc A. Thiessen, a former aide to Mr. Bush and defender of his counterterrorism policies who wrote a book subtitled “How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack,” has spent the last couple weeks defending Mr. Obama for authorizing the secret programs.

But Mr. Thiessen said the president and his team have looked “weak and vacillating and defensive” while overreacting by giving out too much information.