Obama's Strategy for the Israel/Hamas Conflict

[Jean S]

Has he said a word about this? Does he have a secret plan that will be enacted on January 20?

[Cheerio]

BTW, anyone else hearing rumors that the electoral college has been counted and Obama does not have enough votes to take office?

Is this just a rumor? How come we wouldn't have heard something about this when all the electors got together in each state on Dec 15?

[Intolerant in NJ]

Only fifteen more days to hide behind “we have only one president at a time”......

[econjack]

I think it might just be wishful thinking on some peoples’ part as I have not seen anything anywhere about it in print. The rumor came to me from a lady who's kinda into the psychic world.

[RobinOfKingston]

His secret plan is to hope no one notices his thumb in his butt, and, if someone does notice, to change thumbs quickly.

[Parmy]

He is just ‘present’.

[Always A Marine]

His spokesman said the U.S. has one president at a time and they intend to respect that.

And I believe that is exactly the right thing for Obama to say at this point. As a candidate while visiting Israel, Obama flatly affirmed Israel's right to defend itself against the sources of rocket attacks from Gaza. As President-Elect, he is receiving the same daily briefings that President Bush receives -- and I have no doubt that these briefings and his growing awareness of his pending responsibilities have been quite sobering. Like any new President, he has new respect for the man who has borne the world's greatest and loneliest burden for the last eight years.

I did not vote for Obama, but I do respect the fact that he is not interfering with the sitting President's authority during a critical time when one clear voice is necessary. Credit where it is due...

[pankot]

I think 0 is probably praying (if he prays) assiduously that it’s all over by Jan 19th. Shakespeare must have seen this day : “To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he finds it stopping a bung-hole?”
Hamlet V.i,222

[pankot]

See post 27.

[Nachoman]

Will the MSM complain Oboboe is not “engaged” in the peace process, just as they did about President Bush?

[Wil H]

His Harvard education was sponsored and paid for by Muslim Arabs (Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, and Alwaleed bin Talal)

And he counts, not one, but two PLO spokesmen as close personal friends - Communist agitator Edward Said (now deceased), and the current spokesperson Rashid Khalidi.

Kind of puts him between a rock and a hard place if he doesn’t want to piss off his benefactors or the American people..

[John Semmens]

yes. His secret plan is “aggressive monitoring.”

[smokingfrog]

December 9, 2008

• Date for Determination of Controversy as to Appointment of Electors
  States must make final determinations of any controversies or contests as to the appointment of electors at least six days before December 15 meetings of electors for their electoral votes to be presumptively valid when presented to Congress. Determinations by States' lawful tribunals are conclusive, if decided under laws enacted prior to election day.
  
  

December 15, 2008

• Meetings of Electors and Transmission of Certificates of Vote to NARA
  The electors meet in their State to select the President and Vice President of the United States. No Constitutional provision or Federal law requires electors to vote in accordance with the popular vote in their States. NARA's web site lists the States that have laws to bind electors to candidates. The electors record their votes on six "Certificates of Vote," which are paired with the six remaining Certificates of Ascertainment. The electors sign, seal and certify packages of electoral votes and immediately send one set of votes to the President of the Senate and two sets to the Archivist. The Federal Register preserves one archival set and holds the reserve set subject to the call of the President of the Senate to replace missing or incomplete electoral votes.
  
  

December 24, 2008

• Deadline for Receipt of Electoral Votes at NARA
  The President of the Senate and the Archivist should have the electoral votes in hand by December 24, 2008 (States face no legal penalty for failure to comply). If votes are lost or delayed, the Archivist may take extraordinary measures to retrieve duplicate originals.
  
  

On or Before January 3, 2009

• Transmission of Certificates of Ascertainment to Congress
  As the new Congress assembles, the Archivist transmits copies of the Certificates of Ascertainment to Congress. This generally occurs in late December or early January when the Archivist and/or representatives from the Federal Register meet with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House. This is, in part, a ceremonial occasion. Informal meetings may take place earlier.
  
  

January 8, 2009

• Counting Electoral Votes in Congress
  Public Law 110-430 changed the date of the electoral vote in Congress in 2009 from January 6 to January 8. This date change is effective only for the 2008 presidential election.
  The Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes (Congress may pass a law to change the date). The President of the Senate is the presiding officer. If a Senator and a House member jointly submit an objection, each House would retire to its chamber to consider it. The President and Vice President must achieve a majority of electoral votes (270) to be elected. In the absence of a majority, the House selects the President, and the Senate selects the Vice President. If a State submits conflicting sets of electoral votes to Congress, the two Houses acting concurrently may accept or reject the votes. If they do not concur, the votes of the electors certified by the Governor of the State would be counted in Congress.
  
  

January 20, 2009 at Noon

• Inauguration
  The President elect takes the Oath of Office and becomes the U.S. President.

[smokingfrog]

Strategy, then, has no existence apart from the ends sought. It is a general framework that provides guidance for actions to be taken and, at the same time, is shaped by the actions taken. This means that the necessary precondition for formulating strategy is a clear and widespread understanding of the ends to be obtained. Without these ends in view, action is purely tactical and can quickly degenerate into nothing more than a flailing about.

Right now, I think 0bama's brain is flailing about, and without a clue.

[ArmyTeach]

ping for reference

[Michelle M]

Obama is no friend to Jews. His church of 20 years proudly published Hamas manifestos. His pastors regularly spouted anti-semitic babble. He was joined at the hip with Rashid Khalidi, and other known Jew haters. He made promises to Abbas for a Palestinian state. One of his closest advisors, Samantha Power, has just been re-hired. She’d like to arm Palestine and invade Israel. The list of his Jew-hating friends goes on. Then there’s his statement to the New York Times last May where he said that Hamas and Hezbollah have ‘legitimate claims’ they are undermining with the use of violence. ‘Legitimate claims’ — ? Last I checked, the slaughter of Jews was not a legitimate claim and that seems to be the point of their existence.

What his silence means is that he wishes fervently to publicly side with Hamas, but dares not. You cannot know his history and associations and believe otherwise. In time, he will side with them. But first, he will set soften everyone up with some flowery speech delivered from a Muslim country.

If you think the lefties are out in force now, just wait until Obama gives them his stamp of approval. I pray Israel gets done what they need to do before he takes office.

[HokieMom]

I did not vote for Obama, but I do respect the fact that he is not interfering with the sitting President's authority during a critical time when one clear voice is necessary. Credit where it is due...

I agree with your comments 100%.

[Munz]

>>He hasn’t a clue.
He is damned if he does make a statement, by both sides in America and in the Middle East.<<

He is damned in more ways than that. Consider this.
(Precursor I don’t care if he is an American citizen or not, this still applies)

We know he was born to a Muslim father, thus making him a Muslim according to the radical faith practitioners.
If he is still a Muslim he loses here because he has passed himself off as a Cristian to get into office. Plus he must then back the Muslim left in their attacks on Israel.

If he has renounced his faith as Muslim (although he must have been indoctrinated as a child in Indonesia because they do all children there - so he still must hold some beliefs down deep) and taken up Christianity (if you can call that hate spewing black only church he attended for 20 years Christian) then he is a traitor to Islam.

As the leader of our country, he has put us in peril far beyond ANY political problem any other man could have. The radical Islamics will seek his utter destruction and ours for having voted him in.

He is between Islam and a hot place. he is waiting to see now if he can get away with saying nothing. Hoping that it is done in under 20 days. If it is not finished in Gaza by then - which it very well may be, then you will see HRC come out and start doing her two step and obfuscation in hopes to buy him time.

He knows what he wants. He just can’t say it in public.