Romney's veep?

Rubio's Romney endorsement and the vice-presidential calculus | Harry J Enten
http://gu.com/p/36h3z

Newt calls Obama's Trayvon Martin comments 'disgraceful' - POLITICO.com

Newt calls Obama's Trayvon Martin comments 'disgraceful' - POLITICO.com:

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The power of the Presidency, persuasion and the 'bully pitt'

The Trayvon Martin case highlights an interesting example of the power of the presidency. Martin was a high school student staying with relatives in a gated Florida community. George Zimmerman shot him in the street as he thought the boy looked suspicious. The police seemingly took Zimmerman at his word and have not arrested him. At first it was thought that this was due to Florida's 'stand your ground' law which allows a pretty lenient definition of self-defence. However, that law only applies in cases where an intruder has entered a property - Martin was shot on the street.

Therefore, it is doubly unclear as to why Zimmerman was not arrested and questioned by the Florida police.  The case has sparked a nationwide campaign which prompted the US Justice Dept to launch an investigation into the case.

Now, the point of all this is that, today, the Pres has given a speech very clearly setting the tone for the investigation. He was careful not to claim guilt or innocence of any party, due to the impending investigation, but his tone was very sympathetic to the Martin family. This, I think, is quite a good example of what Pres Teddy Roosevelt called the "bully pulpit". Most touchingly Obama said, "If I had a son he would look like Trayvon," This will probably go down as one of his most famous quotes.


Washington Post
Mark Mardell

Worst congress?

Worst Congress ever?

Bush and Katrina - why how has he been criticised?

Largely it's the lack of swift, strong reaction to the human crisis on the ground after the floods and a percieved lack of sympathy for the suffering of victims.

President Bush Explains His Veto on Iraq withdrawal 2007- YouTube

President Bush Explains His Veto - YouTube: ""

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How powerful is the presidency in foreign policy?

How powerful is the presidency in foreign policy?

The War Powers Resolution Act of 1973 was an attempt by Congress to limit the powers of the President to authorise only 60 days combat. In short it hasn't really worked as presidents have sought to evade it. Only used twice and both times withdrawals had been announced. The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding Nixon's presidential veto. The Obama administration authorised airstrikes which lasted for over 60 days.  Many in Congress saw this as a breach of the War Powers Act of 1973.  The White House is response, typical of administrations since the act was passed, claimed that the War Powers Resolution did not apply in Libya as action was small and fragmented.

The President is of the view that the current U.S. military operations in Libya are consistent with the War Powers Resolution and do not under that law require further congressional authorization.

From the New York Times:

In contending that the limited American role did not oblige the administration to ask for authorization under the War Powers Resolution, the report asserted that “U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve U.S. ground troops.” Still, the White House acknowledged, the operation has cost the Pentagon $716 million in its first two months and will have cost $1.1 billion by September at the current scale of operations.

The report came one day after the House Speaker, John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, had sent a letter to Mr. Obama warning him that he appeared to be out of time under the Vietnam-era law that says presidents must terminate a mission 60 or 90 days after notifying Congress that troops have been deployed into hostilities, unless lawmakers authorize the operation to continue.

Mr. Boehner had demanded that Mr. Obama explain his legal justification for passing the deadline. On Wednesday, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said he was still reviewing the documents, adding that “the creative arguments made by the White House raise a number of questions that must be further explored.”

The escalating confrontation with Congress reflects the radically altered political landscape in Washington: a Democratic president asserting sweeping executive powers to deploy American forces overseas, while Republicans call for stricter oversight and voice fears about executive-branch power getting the United States bogged down in a foreign war.

In this video of the House Foreign Affairs Committee a congressman questions the deputy Secretary of State, Steinberg and try to get him to say whether or not he will stick to the War Powers act in Libya. Steinberg's noncommittal answers are characteristic of the way the administration has sought to evade the question of the War Powers resolution over the last two decades.

Is the presidency imperiled even in foreign policy?

Within Obama’s war cabinet, a looming battle over pace of Afghanistan drawdown - The Washington Post:

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Passage of a bill game

Play here

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How important are the House and Senate Leaders?

As shutdown looms, Boehner and Reid rely on their right hands in negotiations - The Washington Post:

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Obama tries to set the political agenda

"the power to persuade..."

People listen to the President so he can try to define the public agenda...

Using the grand backdrop of an East Room news conference, Obama clearly had a mission Wednesday: to reassert a commanding presence on the economic and foreign policy issues that are defining his presidency — and could determine whether he wins reelection. 


MORE HERE

Guide to the US political system. Interactive diagram

BBC NEWS:

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How powerful is the presidency? Excerpt from: RICHARD NEUSTADT Presidential Power and the Modern President

"The President still feels," an Eisenhower aide remarked to me in 1958, "that when he's decided something, that ought to be the end of it ... and when it bounces back undone or done wrong, he tends to react with shocked surprise." Truman knew whereof he spoke. With "resignation" in the place of  shocked surprise," the aide's description would have fitted Truman. The former senator may have been less shocked than the former general, but he was no less subjected to that painful and repetitive experience: "Do this, do that, and nothing will happen." Long before he came to talk of Eisenhower he had put his own experience in other words: "I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them.... That's all the powers of the President amount to."


In these words of a President, spoken on the job, one finds the essence of the problem now before us:  powers" are no guarantee of power; clerkship is no guarantee of leadership. The President of the United States has an extraordinary range of formal powers, of authority in statute law and in the Constitution. Here is testimony that despite his "powers" he does not obtain results by giving orders-or not, at any rate, merely by giving orders. He also has extraordinary status, ex officio, according to the customs of our government and politics. Here is testimony that despite his status he does not get action without argument. Presidential power is the power to persuade....


The limits on command suggest the structure of our government. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 is supposed to have created a government of "separated powers." It did nothing of the sort. Rather, it created a government of separated institutions sharing powers. "I am part of the legislative process," Eisenhower often said in 1959 as a reminder of his veto. Congress, the dispenser of authority and funds, is no less part of the administrative process. Federalism adds another set of separated institutions. The Bill of Rights adds others. Many public purposes can only be achieved by voluntary acts of private institutions; the press, for one, in Douglass Cater's phrase, is a "fourth branch of government." And with the coming of alliances abroad, the separate institutions of a London, or a Bonn, share in the making of American public policy. What the constitution separates our political parties do not combine. The parties are themselves composed of separated organizations sharing public authority. 

http://www.cybersisman.com/civicshonors/unit2/neustadt.pdf

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How far have political parties gained influence in Congress? Now even Republican moderates are turning to the right.

Fred Upton - one of the few Republicans considered a moderate, consensus seeking House member has turned away from bipartisan, "across the aisle" agreements.

Now this ascending group of House Republicans appears to be clear on one thing: They have a chance to reject the sitting president’s agenda and possibly unseat him in a year’s time. And Upton, ever a competitor, is determinedly part of that mission.

That makes onetime Democratic allies wonder what became of their friend Fred, who once pushed for mandates that all light bulbs be more energy-efficient but who now upbraids the Environmental Protection Agency for protecting the environment.

SEE HERE FOR MORE.

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How powerful is the Presidency and what on earth is the 'Buffet Rule'?

Now these Marxists even want to control how we serve our food. I thank you.

Obama's 'Buffett Rule'  - POLITICO.com:





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How powerful is the Presidency? - President Obama: State of the Union 2012

President Obama: State of the Union 2012:

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To what extent are earmarks good/bad for democracy?

Santorum defends his previous support for 'earmarks' in Congress, but claims that he would still stop them as President.

Romney criticises Santorum for voting for the 'bridge to nowhere'. SEE HERE

Should the Coalition's Commons reforms be passed? - Proposed Constituency changes

Panel interview highlighting the main arguments for/against HERE

Excellent programme on the suspicion of big government in the USA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01d0j17/Archive_on_4_Government_Is_Not_the_Solution/

This can help you understand some of the detail of US politics with examples and viewpoints for synopticity. WILL EXPIRE ON 17TH MARCH. Forward to about 2 mins 30sec in.

House of Lords Reform Debate

Why did one Senator require a bucket on the floor of the Senate whilst making a speech? Podcast on the filibuster?

13 Feb 11: The American Filibuster
Mon, 14 Feb 11
Duration:29 mins
The American Filibuster: As the row over filibustering in the UK heats up, Americana takes a look at the history of this increasingly popular senatorial tactic in the U.S. Can it be put to good use - or is it really just the resort of the time-wasting obstructionist? Melting Pot Myth? The BBC's Matthew Wells tests out the immigrant's dream of melting-pot New York. Are the streets paved with gold - or is the myth finally wearing thin? Reclaiming Racist Language: Throughout America's struggles with integration, the vocabulary of "us" and "them" has spawned some unutterable words. Students from Maryland explain how they are reclaiming the language of racism. Joyce Carol Oates: And one of America's pre-eminent authors, Joyce Carol Oates, talks about her new memoire; a raw and candid appraisal of life after her husband's death in 2008.

CLICK BELOW:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/americana/americana_20110214-1130a.mp3