Look, the way you get a pardon from the President of the United States is through the Pardon Office. The Pardon Office receives thousands of applications per year, and very, very few are forwarded on to the president for his personal consideration. And even after that, President Obama has proven on many occasions, as many of you have seen through my writing on the topic, that he is not a merciful guy when it comes to the pardon power. Still, before the president ever sees a pardon, the Pardon Attorney will look at these factors:
1. Post-conviction conduct, character, and reputation.
2. Seriousness and relative recentness of the offense.
3. Acceptance of responsibility, remorse, and atonement.
4. Need for relief.
In other words, once you finished your sentence, some time has passed (generally 50% of the total sentence), the applicant has shown sufficient remorse for the crime, and demonstrated that a pardon is deserved and needed, ONLY THEN will said person's request for a pardon be forwarded to the president.
Bradley Manning just got fucking sentenced yesterday people. YESTERFUCKINGDAY. He hasn't even made it to Fort Leavenworth yet to get down to the nitty gritty. And already, folks are asking for him to be skipped ahead of people who have served sentences, proven themselves rehabilitated, and have been waiting in some cases YEARS for a pardon. But fuck all of them right? Because they don't have their politics in the realm of awesome, so screw em. A president who, to begin with, is the least merciful man in presidential history, should dispense with all those other people whose applications are fortunate enough to land on the resolute desk...to consider a guy who just got convicted YESTERDAY! Ridiculous.
If you want to petition the president to consider a pardon, you should do something serious. Petition the president to start an investigation of the Pardon Office, which sends only a handful of applications to the president's desk. You can join these pardon recipients who did that just that last year. That's a way to get real reform of the pardon power without favoring one person over another.
As for Manning, his chances of actually getting a pardon from this president aren't any better than anyone elses...slim to none. But if you want some future president to consider it, AFTER he's finished his sentence like everyone else, then the way to go is start reforming the way the Pardon Office works. That's a better use of your time than getting your Manning outrage jollies by calling for a special pardon.