US President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to authorize US forces to use missile strikes “kinetic military action” against Libya without the approval of Congress prompted a number of House Representatives within the Democratic Party to express their concerns.
It also prompted something of a debate about the constitutionality of his decision – with some arguing that “the Obama administration [was] breaking new ground in its construction of an imperial presidency”.
There is, however, a reasonable case in support of the President’s position, even if Obama’s own previously stated position on unilateral authorization of military action by a President might suggest that he actually believes otherwise… And he’s a law professor, after all.
But when the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky admits that he is “flabbergasted” at the US President’s public silence on that decision, you know he’s got a problem. Don’t worry, Michael, he’ll explain everything on Monday.
In the meantime, via the Professor, there’s this snippet from a L.A. Times op-ed.
This unexpected image of a cowboy president from Illinois is gaining traction in the public mind and late-night comedians’ monologues (“Three wars now,” Jay Leno said Wednesday night. “Can you imagine how many wars we’d be in if Pres. Obama hadn’t gotten the Nobel Peace Prize?”)
Heh, indeed.
Update Michael Tomasky is still unhappy.
Obviously, Obama read my scathing post from last week and decided he’d better give a speech on this Libya business. So tonight he speaks at the National Defense University here in Washington at 7:30.
This still isn’t quite right to me. First of all, it’s too late, as I noted previously. Second, it isn’t quite appropriate. There should be no audience for such a speech. You sit at the commander-in-chief’s desk in the Oval Office and you tell the American people what we’re doing and why. There should be no applause lines in such a speech. This disturbs me.
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