Posted on 03/21/2011 3:06:12 PM PDT by jazusamo
Complete title: Obama: ‘President Does Not Have Power Under Constitution to Unilaterally Authorize a Military Attack’
(CNSNews.com) - As a presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) emphatically stated that the Constitution does not give the president the authority to unilaterally authorize a military attack unless it is needed to stop an actual or imminent attack on the United States.
Obama made the assertion in a Dec. 20, 2007 interview with the Boston Globe when reporter Charlie Savage asked him under what circumstances the president would have the constitutional authority to bomb Iran without first seeking authorization from Congress.
“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” Obama responded.
“As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States,” Obama continued. “In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch.”
Obama did not seek congressional authorization before joining allies, including Great Britain and France, in taking military action against the regime of Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi in order to establish a no-fly zone over that country. The action was approved by the United Nations Security Council but not by the U.S. Congress.
In a followup question in its December 2007 interview, the Boston Globe asked Obama if the Constitution gave the president the power to disregard a congressional statute putting some type of limit on the way troops could be deployed. Here, too, Obama deferred to the constitutional authority of Congress.
“No, the President does not have that power,” Obama told the paper. “To date, several Congresses have imposed limitations on the number of US troops deployed in a given situation. As President, I will not assert a constitutional authority to deploy troops in a manner contrary to an express limit imposed by Congress and adopted into law.”
As I have said before, in order to be a liberal there must be NOTHING that you are not a hypocrite about.
Here is one for the futures history books, how can a POTUS who was never eligible to be elected have the sole power to start a war?
Technically Obama has no authority to even BE THE PRESIDENT.
So what laws did he break?
There is no way out of this except extreme interpretation of the 10th Amendment.
That is the only check on a fed executive branch on a serious, protracted, out of control tear.
Hey wait a sec. The President has taught Constitutional Law. He knows what he was talking about.
Have we forgotten Obama is King. Absolute dictator. He can afford to vacation almost every day. His empire rules America.
This is not the establishment of a "no-fly" zone unless they were trying to kill all the flies on the ground.
Usually to create a "no-flies zone" you use Malathion and not bunker busters.
Somebody obviously got the pesticides mixed up with the ordinance.
what I see here is a lack of “checks” here. He bypassed getting permission for this. What else might he try?
If nobody challenges this act then it could embolden him to stretch the law on many other issues.Problem is his regime searched high and low for who could have the clout, the position or the agency to stop or remove him and he silently came in the back door and did a Stepford Wives routine.
In effect he replaced those people or put them very very close and on a tight leash. Such as Hillary. Losing Pelosi cost him big time, actually it may have mortally wounded him, she was too stupid and too power hungry to ask questions from day one.
Audacity is his mantra right now, when he comes back I suspect he will do something with FEMA, why? because he will hang ten on the hysteria wave of radiation poisoning or some other disaster trend.Do we have a radiation problem? not as far as I know but his followers will gladly try to make it the end of the world scenario.
And his Obamacare isn’t done yet, matter of fact I believe he will enforce it even stronger now.
When he returns he will be different I believe, more in a rage, more undirected and even incoherent. Mussolini resurrected anyone?
He’s a pothead — of course he can’t remember what he said four years ago.
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