President Obama can be credited with doing plenty of extraordinary things during his tenure, keeping in mind that “extraordinary” doesn’t necessarily mean “good.” After the nation’s elected representatives demanded over the course of several days to be consulted on a possible military strike on Syria, President Obama announced this afternoon that he would indeed seek Congressional approval.
NBC’s Chuck Todd called the president’s willingness to “share” his power with another branch of government extraordinary. Fortunately, explicit instructions for just how to divvy up that power can be found in the Constitution, readily available online and in most libraries and bookstores.
It’s hard to say. Like Benghazi, all those things Barack Obama said when he was senator happened a long time ago. In case anyone thought Todd was alone one this one, BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith and Evan McMorris-Santoro quickly penned a piece about Obama’s “big Syria power giveaway” — a “rare and dramatic blow against his own power.”
As we’ve learned from the Spider-Man movies, though, with the giving away of great power comes the giving away of great responsibility.
David Axelrod seems happy that those pesky Congressmen nipping at Obama’s heels have finally been given the attention they demanded.
It will be a fascinating week, especially if Congress decided to hand the president the same defeat Parliament delivered to David Cameron.
