Even if you think, as I do, Manning should have the book thrown at him, the Snowden case is quite a bit different. For one thing, Manning took a bunch of class

Even if you think, as I do, Manning should have the book thrown at him, the Snowden case is quite a bit different. For one thing, Manning took a bunch of classified data he couldn't possibly have gone through in any detail and dumped it on the internet. People probably died as a result, and certainly it hurt US diplomatic efforts. It only takes five minutes of reading before you realize Bradly Manning has psychological problems and should never have been allowed access to anything important, and his data dump was probably more about his personal problems than it was about any kind of principle. Snowden's case is quite a bit different. He only released details about the program he was familiar with. Clearly he broke the law and clearly he's forsworn, but IMO you can make a much better case for leniency or even a pardon. Given the way this administration has been going after leakers (would have been the sign of Hitler's second coming had it been Bush) he shouldn't hold his breath expecting a pardon.