The Big Cheese

If you are the President of the United States, the past two months and especially the past week has been the most empowering time of your presidency.

Obama is limited in America, he has to deal with Congress if he wants to do anything.  The stimulus plan was a package of Congressional Democrat spending priorities slapped together with a huge piece of tax cuts to appease Republicans.  In the end Republicans didn’t even support it.  The health care bill was totally put together by Congress.  The framework of financial regulatory reform was put together by his Treasury Department staff but ultimately named the “Dodd-Frank Act” after the two lead congressional sponsors of the legislation.  While there is a list of important legislative items that could not have passed without Obama, none are truly his own offspring.

Then comes the unraveling of dictators in the Middle East.  When Obama sent envoys to Egypt and the U.S. began its attack on Libya he never addressed the nation, he never asked Congress for their opinion, he simply gave orders to the State Department and the Pentagon.  Fuck Congress – why bother with them?  Seriously, why would anyone want to involve 535 men and women with 535 opinions on how to move forward with a pancake breakfast, let alone a multi-state coordinated attack on a sovereign nation?

You just have to imagine that despite the nostalgic feeling of taking the oath of office, all the birthers, the entire health care debate, failure of cap-n-trade, Guantanamo, there lack of thanks from a tea party patriot nation who fails to see the economic growth and 14 months of private sector job increases that it all would make the President feel a little powerless.  Now, all of a sudden Obama realizes he can snap his fingers and order a $100+ million a day assault on an asshole that oppresses his people in the name of justice. The decision on Afghanistan might have been more important, but given the public and congressional scrutiny the President would have felt a lot of pressure on all sides .  With Libya,  he had the opportunity to act well before the majority of the nation had any opinion at all.

It must be a good feeling to act before people start to judge, and I imagine that for the first time Obama might feel like the President of the United States of America.

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