Obama As Commander-In-Chief ... From A Law Professor Perspective

Posted 2009/11/10 16:52:57
Read all 240 comments
+12

maxine-log.blogspot.com - [Video Links] Yesterday, Jake Tapper of ABC News had a sit down interview with President Barack Obama at the White House that covered many of the pressing issues of the day from the economy (unemployment at 10.2%), the Congress passing its version of a Health Care system overhaul (that included a ban on Federal funding of abortion procedures),... Read full article »

+12

Edmund Jenks 2009/11/10 17:50:58

+13
Additional Take-Away:
Asked what philosophically separates an act of violence from an act of terrorism, the president said,

"I think the questions that we're asking now and we don't have yet complete answers to is, is this an individual who's acting in this way or is it some larger set of actors? You know, what are the motivations? Those are all questions that I think we have to ask ourselves. Until we have these answers buttoned down, I'd rather not comment on it.

Hey, pretty much, mass murder is MASS MURDER! If this act comes behind a jihad mentality, it is an act of terrorism.
>> See Replies

jackolantyrn356 2009/11/14 16:02:20

His CiC seems to be limited oin scope to his need to be the supreme commander in all things. His approach appears to be very much like an African dictator's desire to be the be all and have all, while his people who elected want to share in the mix.

reply
BlueStone 2009/11/12 15:07:53

+2
My read on the Jake Tapper interview is that there were no definitive answers to many of Mr. Tapper's questions and that President Obama was correct to provide general comments, rather than to guess at what is needed while relevant information is still being gathered.

reply
Freckles 2009/11/12 08:59:45

+1
The TERRORIST, who murdered our troop's was dressed in his muslim garments, and BHO, has dressed in similar garments, this is why he will not condemn this as a TERRORIST act!!!!

reply
Tom to Freckles 2009/11/13 14:42:03

+2
Halloween '08, I dressed in the same outfit that BHO wore, does that make me a terrorist too?

If you don't have any more intellect than that, maybe you should consider keeping your mouth shut, until you acquire some.

reply
riceroni ~ POTC**FUKU2** 2009/11/12 00:57:02
Lulu 2009/11/11 02:42:52

+1
Understand, most will sell Mom for a vote.

reply
12 Tone Melody 2009/11/11 02:26:47

+1
More pseudo-intellectual psycho-babble from the Narcissist-in-Chief that is totally devoid of any coherentideas

reply
mae 2009/11/11 01:51:41

+2
Maxine; website is criticizing very unwittingly. The President gave the only correct answer as the the commander in chief of the armed forces of the USA and the leader of the free world.

reply
Kane Fernau 2009/11/11 01:35:31

From AirAmerica http://airamerica.com/news/06...

reply
Dixie 10 Dog aka nanadixie 2009/11/11 00:41:56 (edited)

+7
When Mr. Obama speaks and says something the listener agrees with, it is reported that Mr. Obama is brilliant. When the president does not say the things the interviewer wants to hear, Mr. Obama is reported as being naive, out of his depth and other such negative attributes are applied. Of course the man is a normal human and has particular expertise in certain fields and a decided lack in others. ------- When he hesitates to give immediate answers, he is reported as being slow, rather than being reported as willing to do research to help him make the final choice. This will continue to be the case throughout Mr. Obama's presidency. It is our responsibility to look beyond the bias (negative or positive) to see what is really going on. When this occurs, folks find that Obama is just a man trying to do his best for the country. ------- The key element, he is just a man. We are simply fortunate to have a president that is willing to slow down and think before reacting. (As he failed to do in the Gates case) We are fortunate that this man does not have a previous agenda (except for the promise to create affordable health care), as some of our past (pro-oil industry) presidents have carried.

reply
Kev316 to Dixie 1... 2009/11/11 01:00:58 (edited)

+3
This is one of the most reasoned and thought out responses I have seen. Thank you. I'm sorry it will be above the heads of so many people.

Personally, I was not a fan of Mr. Bush. I did not, however, want him to fail. I did not hold up guns and say I'll be letting the 2ed amendment do the talking for me. I protested POLICY. I stuck to policy and why I felt it was off the track. And those of us called treasonous for questioning the Iraq war and torture ended up correct. Yet we were still told to get out of the right's country.

Had we remotely acted this way, I have no doubt many would have been jailed. Hell, you couldn't go to a speech without signing a loyalty oath to the president. Now who are the ones who don't get America?

The right should be very thankful we don't play by their rules. What you did to the left in this nation for eight years was barbaric at best, treasonous at worst.

reply
Dixie 1... to Kev316 2009/11/12 08:47:39

+1
You make a good point regarding the way the conservative right faction of the voting base would have reacted during Bush Jr.'s term, if the liberals had behaved the way the "Birthers" and "Tea Baggers" are behaving. My mother use to say "Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves". We lived in a very racist part of Virginia during the early to mid 60's, when segregation was the status quo. When the KKK put a small burning cross in our front yard when my uncle and his Mexican wife visited, and my uncle wanted to raise a big fuss, she told him the same thing. -------- It turned out she was quite correct. As the idiots acted out their inner hate and anger, the nation recognized them to be nuts and evil. The nation was appalled by the racism seen in the news and accepted segregation laws, allowing change to come about more quickly. ------ In this same light, I see the extreme conservative radicals demonstrating their extremist attitudes as their undoing. The world will see that they are a radical fringe with little rational backbone. Their silly, unfounded propaganda will be recognized as nonsense. Finally, they will become the laughing stock of the nation. Give them enough rope, and the far right wing will get Palinized and end up a defunct party.

reply
Kev316 to Dixie 1... 2009/11/12 08:52:19

+1
I would really like some of those inner peace and understanding pills you are taking. I wish I were better at patience. You seem to have it down perfectly.

Thanks.

reply
Dixie 1... to Kev316 2009/11/13 10:50:05

I think once the economy gets back on track, and hopefully once the health care bill is approved, folks will feel less afraid. When this economic fear is not the focus of attention, the nation will quickly get tired of the nut jobs in the radical extreme lanes of GOP restructure. Still, the nation's rational minded voters need to stay on top of the game, keeping the media full of truthful data that shows why the RWNJs are just that, right wing nut jobs. I think many of us believed the election ended our job in the nation's political structure.

reply
Kev316 to Dixie 1... 2009/11/13 16:58:57

+1
Dixie, You are spot-on. We are resting on our laurels when now, more than ever, we need to be engaged.

A couple of things I felt were true when this president took office: 1) We would see the economy growing again by fall. So far so good. 2) Unemployment numbers (lagging indicator) would get worse before they got better but would start to turn around in late winter/early spring of 2010. Overall, I figured it would be 3 years before things were really looking up. I'm still convinced that's the case and the president said as much from day 1.

reply
Dixie 1... to Kev316 2009/11/14 07:20:55

+1
Absolutely correct! Your predictions reflect my opinion also. You seem to understand the broad picture of what happened as a direct result of "too little government" over-sight of the savings and loan industry. I am so sad to see that not many people have that sort of grasp of what has happened to our economy, or why. ------- I have asked my students to picture a large freeway system with many lanes of traffic going in both directions, and lots of entrances and exits as well. Next, I ask them to picture what would happen if just one car broke down in the middle of the slow lane. I then ask to think about what would happen if the one car had broken down in one of the fast lanes. From there I have my students envision the freeway system with a major accident that closes every lane in one direction. -------- Now, add to that, the impact if part of the mess of cars jumped the divider and caused major accident in one or more lanes going the opposite direction. We explore what would happen and then I have them picture the crash that stopped money from flowing on its regular super freeway system, such as every county, state, and national economic flow of money. I add the influence such an economic crisis could cause to the global money flow, and the students light up. They "see" how the economy gets blocked and understand why it is going to be slow getting money circulating once again.

reply
Kev316 to Dixie 1... 2009/11/14 07:58:50

+1
Exceptional teaching, Dixie. Wow. And they say nobody learns anything in public schools. Now if only you could somehow get this across to the other half of the country. It's as if everyone has ADD.

reply
Dixie 1... to Kev316 2009/11/14 08:13:56

+1
It is really sad that our elected representatives do not know their nation's history. I would like to see a bill introduced that would require every person who is elected to a federal public office to pass a test on America History, Civics, and Economics. I think that would change things quite a bit. I would also like to see a bill to establish term limits, or rotation terms. That would end some of the problems of our elected servants making a lifelong career of taking corporate lobbying money.

reply
Edmund ... to Dixie 1... 2009/11/12 14:04:05 (edited)

This diatribe demonstrates that people will read into any action of disagreement ... any motive.

Since I attended several Tea Party gatherings as a citizen journalist for Pajamas Media to observe and report ... I did not see any of this - "they are a radical fringe with little rational backbone" - or - "extreme conservative radicals demonstrating their extremist attitudes" - in any of the crowds I observed in Southern California. What I saw was an informed group of voting Americans from all political persuasions that were fed up with a political leadership selling the country into massive DEBT (four (4) times increase just since January 20, 2009) on the concept that Government should CONTROL everything at the ultimate cost of individual human rights guaranteed by the founding document that has guided and built this country into the leading nation in the world.

Believe it or not, there are Democrats who believe in the very real concept of American Exceptional-ism and the retention of personal rights in the pursuit of happiness. Conversely, there are Republican politicians that will vote to have a bigger Government that always ends up shutting down the ability for citizens to make decisions for their own lives.

I think it would behoove you to dig just a little deeper in your own...

This diatribe demonstrates that people will read into any action of disagreement ... any motive.

Since I attended several Tea Party gatherings as a citizen journalist for Pajamas Media to observe and report ... I did not see any of this - "they are a radical fringe with little rational backbone" - or - "extreme conservative radicals demonstrating their extremist attitudes" - in any of the crowds I observed in Southern California. What I saw was an informed group of voting Americans from all political persuasions that were fed up with a political leadership selling the country into massive DEBT (four (4) times increase just since January 20, 2009) on the concept that Government should CONTROL everything at the ultimate cost of individual human rights guaranteed by the founding document that has guided and built this country into the leading nation in the world.

Believe it or not, there are Democrats who believe in the very real concept of American Exceptional-ism and the retention of personal rights in the pursuit of happiness. Conversely, there are Republican politicians that will vote to have a bigger Government that always ends up shutting down the ability for citizens to make decisions for their own lives.

I think it would behoove you to dig just a little deeper in your own motives and analyze what is really important to you for your own life. Read the Constitution and come to your own decision on what might be important to you, as opposed to buying into a group think paradigm and template thinking espoused in your thoughts through your writing.
(more)

reply
Dixie 1... to Edmund ... 2009/11/13 11:29:50 (edited)

I am a teacher. I have read the constitution and teach U.S. Government. You stated that you attended a Tea Party gathering as a citizen journalist of Pajamas Media. You attended this in the Southern California area, and can only attest the behavior of the people in this one area. However, national news from all three leading networks have repeatedly shown there is an element of extremists that have attended these gatherings. I never said that all GOP members are extremists; as I have also said that every Muslim is not a terrorist. Still, it cannot be denied that there are Islamic terrorists. It cannot be denied that there are extremist fringe among the Republican base, as well as among the Democrat party. ----- It remains true, however, that if the leftwing members of the nation had behaved as vociferous and with any overtone of demanding revolution or secession of a state from the union, these folks would have been branded as traitors. Instead of throwing big demonstrations in protest of the many issues the left had with President Bush, we accepted and respected his authority to lead the nation in the way he saw fit during his tenure. (Before you go there, Yes I know some leftist liberals did demonstrate, and some showed just as poor manners as the biggots at the tea partie...

I am a teacher. I have read the constitution and teach U.S. Government. You stated that you attended a Tea Party gathering as a citizen journalist of Pajamas Media. You attended this in the Southern California area, and can only attest the behavior of the people in this one area. However, national news from all three leading networks have repeatedly shown there is an element of extremists that have attended these gatherings. I never said that all GOP members are extremists; as I have also said that every Muslim is not a terrorist. Still, it cannot be denied that there are Islamic terrorists. It cannot be denied that there are extremist fringe among the Republican base, as well as among the Democrat party. ----- It remains true, however, that if the leftwing members of the nation had behaved as vociferous and with any overtone of demanding revolution or secession of a state from the union, these folks would have been branded as traitors. Instead of throwing big demonstrations in protest of the many issues the left had with President Bush, we accepted and respected his authority to lead the nation in the way he saw fit during his tenure. (Before you go there, Yes I know some leftist liberals did demonstrate, and some showed just as poor manners as the biggots at the tea parties, but I do not think the number of these rude individuals were as many as I have seen in the present bull ring of political protest). I am amazed that the rightwing factions who are protesting with such vile anger do not realize that they are the minority of this Democratic Republic, at this particular time. When the GOP has a majority again, their leader will dictate measures that the loosing party do not like. This is the way the democratic game is played. ----- What really worries me is how many of the Tea Baggers I have met do not understand why Obama can't turn the nation into a socialist state. This could not happen without legislature approval, which the voters would never allow their representatives to endorse. ----- I am old and remember the hoopla over Medicare. Folks protested and said that it was the slippery slope to communism, my neighbor carried one of those protest signs. My father tried to explain to this man why his fears were unfounded, but he would not listen. This same silly man claimed that Negroes could never win gold medals at swimming events because their pores were too large and they absorb too much water. Recent Olympic events have proved this fool wrong, and so has history proved that Medicare did not lead the nation into communism.
(more)

reply