Advocates of strong government on right and left think he is a demon.
Those who are more considered realize that: (1) if what he says is exactly accurate in all respects, then it was important for the American people to know about it, and (2) if he were a hero, he would have stayed in the US and demanded justice.
When Snowden praises Manning, one needs to reflect a bit.
Yes. Here is an analogy:
This guy Snowden in 1912 would have gone all out to expose the White Star Line for negligence in designing the Titanic without having enough lifeboats to save the entirety of the passengers and the crew.
But in his non-lifeboat criticizing life, he would have been battling the ability of the shipwrights to construct ships that could withstand damage, openly undermining the readiness of any iceberg warning system, interfering with attempts to standardize and govern shipboard radio traffic and communication, and so on.
But he would have been right there for the lifeboat issue.