A little over a year ago, I was in the Executive Office Building having a meeting with President Obama. The topic of the meeting was Gitmo and prosecuting 9/11 terrorists and the bombers of the USS Cole.
Before the meeting, President Obama "worked the room," shaking hands and briefly saying hello to all. When I shook his hand, I was immediately struck with the fact that he just seemed so nice. Sort of pure. It was, indeed, a deep departure from the feeling I got from the Bush Administration.
Once seated, Obama sat across from me. I could see his legs plainly. What I noticed was that his feet cutely curled around the bottom legs of his chair--like a small child would do in primary school. For obvious reasons, this body language was not what I would have expected from the Commander in Chief of the United States of America.
While questioning President Obama about Gitmo and more specifically prosecuting 9/11 co-conspirators, admittedly, I got a bit "inside baseball" with the facts but I figured as a Constitutional Law professor, Obama would know what I was talking about. Yet, as the meeting progressed and President Obama kept agreeing to everything, I had a small sinking feeling that the President might not really understand the ramifications of what he was so easily assenting to.
But honestly, at the time, I didn't really care. After all, he was the President and he had said it. It was his word. And, most importantly, he had to stick to his word. Right? I shot a nod over to one of his staffers (whom I knew) as if to say, "did ya get that? Did you hear what he just said? Because, I'm holding him to it." I actually smirked. It sort of felt like taking candy from a baby--only this was the President. There really wasn't anything the President didn't or wouldn't agree to.
As I walked away from the meeting, I kept shutting out my cynical, jaded attitude. I wanted to believe. I wanted to have hope that this new President would do the right thing. A new day was dawning. I even wrote a rosy blog about it.
A year later, as I sit and write this updated blog I am mindful that: my home is not near foreclosure; I don't find myself jobless; I have decent--although extremely costly--private health insurance; and I have no loved ones fighting overseas. So, in essence, maybe I shouldn't be complaining.
But I have a little girl named Caroline whose father was killed on 9/11. She will grow up to learn that her mom, an attorney and unwitting activist, fought tirelessly along with many others for a 9/11 Commission and to hold people accountable for the 3000 dead on 9/11. Caroline's also a fourth grader who just learned about the Constitution in her cultural history class.
So this morning when I was making breakfast, and Caroline asked me why I was so upset, I told her the truth. "I found out that President Obama is not going to keep his word. That he is going to ignore the Constitution. And that disappoints me."
My daughter's calm response? "But he can't. Every President has to follow the Constitution. That's their job. The Constitution has to always be followed by everybody. Or at least everybody in America."
When fighting the Bush Administration for accountability related to 9/11, the war in Iraq, and adherence to the Constitution when it came to torture and the Patriot Act, I found that President Bush had deeply held--albeit, inherently flawed-- convictions. Indeed, President Bush and I agreed on very little. But, at the very least, I knew clearly what he stood for and where I stood with him. I can't say the same for President Obama.
All presidents have constraints. They have to deal with the opposing party. They have to deal with their own party. They have to deal with institutional limitations on the office. They have to deal with Congress, and the governors, and the media, and the American people, and the incessant hawing of people who are disappointed for campaign promises not delivered according to schedule.
And Ms. Breitweiser I can understand your shock at watching the president agree. But is this not exactly the president that the so-called Obamaites, or Obamazombies elected? Someone who would consider all sides?
Finally, what I don't understand is that you know very well as a scholar of sorts, that the Constitution is largely vague even in the enumerated sections of Article I. Explain to your impressionable child that our Constitution was designed to meet not only the contingencies of the day, but those of a future the Founders knew they could not predict. These same vagaries are what make your profession necessary.
Come to think of it, how is he ignoring the Constitution? By not keeping his promises? That's not in the Constitution. That is politics.
I have voted in 10 presidential elections and I have never regretted my vote to the extent that I do with Obama. There have been other disappointments, but never so many out and out lies. Obama's leadership failure is just stunning to me.
"I found out that President Obama is not going to keep his word."
Bush acted from his "gut," i.e., his own childish ego. He was an inveterate liar whose very 1st cabinet meeting in Feb. of 2001 was about attacking Iraq. He had no loyalty to anyone but himself and his ultra elite and wealthy cohorts. No interest in the environment, people's lives, other countries' opinions of him, the average person's struggles, or the future of the country. He had NO interest in 9/11, other than the pathway it opened for him to go into Iraq.
Obama is not Bush. They aren't even on the same planet.
Oh, and there was this Nixon guy, you might have heard of him. He practically invented corruption.
Crack a book some time, your mind will thank you and you won't come on here and make an idiot of yourself anymore.
I voted for the President, and I still support him....largely because there is nowhere else to go.
Unfortunately, the President knows this only too well.
Many people like myself have an inkling of what it feels like to be waterboarded as;
drip, drip, drip,......one after another,........ Obama blithely jettisons poitions boldly stated, and cherished bedrock principles...............in favor of the President's transactional analysis of the politics of the day.....(or even of the hour)
If everything is negotiable, then nothing is sacred
It's telling that Ms. Brieitweiser's fourth grader, Caroline seems to have a clearer understanding of the inaugural oath's promise to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution..." than does Constitutional scholar Obama.
Another promise.........just words?
None of us doubt the President's intelligence, and we'd all like (still) to believe that his heart is in the right place.
It's just that his WORD isn't any good.
TM
http://www.ypa.org/article.php?article=0030
Civilian Courts:119 Military Tribunals: 3
I haven't heard back.
Free of charge.
http://www.aim.org/aim-report/is-barack-obama-a-marxist-mole/
In private confidence, his real convictions...the rise of the proletariat and the destruction of property rights, no doubt come shining through.
Should he find another city willing to host? Would you feel vindicated if the trials were held in say Death Valley, California or maybe Millidgeville, Georgia? Exactly what should he do?
And just how would you know trying them in a military tribunal is the right thing to do? How many military tribunals have you presided over or even attended that you would have extensive knowledge of what was right and not right. If it was so right, then did you object when the previous administration tried over 300 terrorists in criminal court? I suspect you did not. So, please sit down with your hypocritical ranting. You were for criminal trials before you were against them.
We are a country of laws. But if we start rolling down the shades and deserting our main streets like the frightened citizens in High Noon, we're nothing -- just a bunch of cowards running in TERROR from a band of ragged men with box cutters.
So I think we agree we should stand up to the terrorists and try them in the open like the common criminals that they are. But still what can Obama do, if NY will not agree to host the event?
"It is impossible for a coward to be moral." Ghandi
Not place it all at the foot of a president who inherited a horrific mess.
We chose him because he was centrist, calm and deliberative...thoughtful and deeply intellectual. the rest of the world appreciates this about him.
Now we criticize him for not being heavy handed and overt.
This has been evident for almost a year now.
Why is this self-apparent fact still "news"?
I'm almost done reading Game Change by Halperin and Heilemann and the tough, almost brilliant campaign Obama ran-- both for the Democratic nomination & the general election-- has left so many bewildered by this first year of his administration.
The contrast is a hard one to figure out......