The Incredible Diminishing Presidency

It is amazing how the Office the President of the United States of America contracts and expands in relation to the size of the man (and in the future, the woman) in it.

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When George Washington occupied the Office, even though we were a brand new country with untested views of how to form a nation in which the rights of man would truly be ascendant, the Presidency, as well as the man, were larger than life.  When Abraham Lincoln was President, though serving during the most tragic period in our history, the Office seemed enormous.   Even during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s tenure as our President, though so many disagreed with both his policies and his methods of achieving them, the Office of the President of the U.S. was huge.  When we come to Ronald Reagan, we can say that the man as President bestrode the world like a colossus.

Our founders debated at great length and in equally great detail not only what their new nation’s executive should be called, what duties it would entail, what its limitations should be, even to what would be the form of address for the new executive.  Some of our Founders showed great imagination and creativity in providing options for each one of  these.

At the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1787, there were basically three options debated by the delegates regarding the Office of the executive: the first was to have a weak executive, established to “administer departments of government and whose powers came from laws passed by Congress”; the next was to have a stronger executive who would be able to be a ‘check and balance’ to Congress; and the last was the strongest of the three, to have an executive with its own constitutional ‘grants of power.’

Throughout the convention, proponents of a strong Presidency argued for a short term of four years, with no restrictions on eligibility for reelection, a method that would remove selection from the legislature and make the President accountable to the people. It was a very real fear at the time that the American President, given too many powers, could, as said at the time by Patrick Henry, “easily become a King.”

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These deliberations on the part of our Founding Fathers in 1787 resulted in certain basic powers for the President of the United States.  The executive would be the Commander in Chief; would grant pardons, (except in the cases of impeachment); would give the State of the Union address to Congress; and would recommend to the Congress measures that “he shall judge necessary and expedient.” 

Early in the proceedings, Robert Morris, (known as the financier of the American Revolution, which he did to such an extent that by the end of the war, he was bankrupt and spent a large part of his later life in a debtors’ prison), introduced a motion that was readily passed designating George Washington as the ‘Presiding Officer’ of the convention.  This measure demonstrated the intention of the group that General Washington would assume the position of the executive once the Office, and its duties and definitions, had been determined.  A result of this was that the delegates’ discussion of this Office was imbued with the impeccable character of George Washington, thus causing the assembled to assume that the best of man would always inhabit the Office.  Always the realist, Benjamin Franklin tempered the discussion by saying: “The first man put at the helm will be a good one, (but) no one knows what sort may come afterwards.”

So it would seem that at least one of these extraordinary men suspected that someone without the sterling character of George Washington would assume the Presidency, thus demonstrating yet again how prescient these remarkable men were.

Not even the active imagination of Benjamin Franklin, however, could have imagined the executive that hope and change brought to America in 2008.

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There was much discussion given to what the Office of the executive would be called and how the executive would be addressed.  It was decided that the Office would be called the Presidency, and its occupant called the President, but there was still some question as to how to address the executive.  “His Excellency,” which was the standard form of addressing numerous forms of authority at the time, was initially used in addressing President Washington.  John Adams, our first Vice President, and a Founding Father who did not hesitate to involve himself in everything to do with his new country and its formation, thought otherwise, however.  He felt that either “His Majesty the President,” or, even better, “His High Mightiness,” would be preferable in addressing America’s new executive.

As Adams’ expressed preferences became known to the other Founders, the Vice President, who was rather small and round, as well as a bit on the prickly and pompous side, was then assigned with a  title of his own, that of ‘His Rotundity.’  Vice President Adams, who was, in fact, rotund, was nevertheless not amused.

Another issue exclusively involving the Office of the Presidency was its occupant’s removal.  It was stated in the final rules that the Congress may remove the “President from office after impeachment and conviction of treason, bribery or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”  Impeachment is by majority vote in the House, and conviction requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate.

Presidential power has grown considerably since these original rules were established by our Founders.  This has been accomplished not only by certain successive Supreme Court rulings, but also by various Presidents simply assuming powers to themselves.  A rather remarkable example of this can be seen at the time of our Civil War, when during that conflict President Lincoln felt he had to take actions that were clearly unconstitutional.  Once the hostilities ceased, however, the President demonstrated his desire to comply with what he recognized as the rules of his nation and asked for retroactive approval of those actions.  This approval was granted.

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The whole point of the exercise with regard to the establishment of the executive in the government of the new United States of America was to make it an integral part of a balanced tricameral American government.  This would be meant to “act independently and interdependently to protect citizens’ rights;” i.e., an effective series of checks and balances that would be so in the short, as well as the long, term.  It was James Madison who said that the American President would “enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

All this regarding the Office of the Presidency was agreed to by this distinguished group of men in the 18th Century, and has been, with a few exceptions through the years, the case; that is, until hope and change came to America.

The tenancy of Barack Hussein Obama has diminished perhaps for all time the Office of the Presidency of the United States of America, an Office our Founders endeavored to make an honored and dignified position, inspirational and imbued with great authority and grace. In his short tenure so far, Obama has made his contempt for the rules of this nation, the U.S. Constitution, quite clear, and has made his contempt for the majority of the American people abundantly clear, as well.  He has been thoroughly corrupt in his legislative dealings, demonstrating his determination to slam through his increasingly unpopular agenda at any cost, using any means, no matter how unconstitutional, venal and damaging to the American people and the nation the majority of these people love.  This tragically elected 44th President has humiliated his nation and its people again and again on the world stage, not only by his ‘foreign policy’ decisions, but by his consistent apologies for the wretchedness of the country he leads, and he has done so in every international venue he can find.  He has magnified this humiliation  by continually hugging and bowing to the dictators ruling over our nation’s enemies, while publically and quite purposefully humiliating those who lead our nation’s former allies.

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Obama has proven that he cannot govern; all he is able to do is talk, and then only in front of pre-programmed audiences guaranteed to be friendly to him, and ably assisted by his teleprompters.  He also goes to lots of meetings, all either destructive or useless, and all costing the American people yet another massive amount of money that we do not have and do not want to spend if we did have it.

But that is what community organizers do, don’t you know?

Where but in the alternate universe of the Obama Administration would the ‘Safe Schools’ czar be a well-known homosexual activist and child-man sex advocate?  Where else but under the rule of this person would our ‘Science’ czar advocate forced abortion as an acceptable method of population control?  Where else but in Obama’s regime would one find the individual responsible for overall national health policy calling for use of euthanasia for those deemed to be no longer useful to the state? Where else but in this insane leftist utopia currently in Washington today would there be contemplation of an appointment of a Justice to the Supreme Court based on that person’s sexual preference? 

I must have missed that particular requirement in the section of the Constitution defining selection of Supreme Court Associate Justices.

In his inelegant and classless fashion, Obama continually behaves like an African colonial despot, all too frequently using our White House to entertain rap stars and the like, and using Air Force One for international shopping trips for various members of his family.  His manners and behavior are deplorable – “wee-weed up,” “the police have behaved stupidly,” “corpseman,” “they should thank me,” “anyone can buy a truck,” “tea baggers,” “bitterly clinging to their guns and religion,”  “whether we like it or not, we are still the world’s largest superpower,” and in his most recent stunner, “I think there comes a time when you have made enough money.”

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Yes, that was the President of the United States of America who made those last two remarks.  About America, and about Americans.

There is a recent photo of Obama, taken on a golf course, where he had adjourned after  blowing off the funeral of the Polish President.  In this cringe-inducing picture, our 44th President seems to have purposely donned attire that looked as disrespectful as possible, on a day on which dignitaries from all over Washington were going to the Polish Embassy to pay their respects to the fallen Polish leader.  The nation of Poland was a brave and stalwart former ally of the United States of America.

The way Obama looks, the way he behaves, the things he says, the policies he is enacting, the people he is truly representing, are in no way related to the parts of the Constitution that define the Office of the President of the United States that came to us from our Founders in 1787 after such lengthy and serious deliberation. 

It’s almost is as if Barack Hussein Obama is purposely trying to forever diminish the Office of the Presidency of the United States.  Do you think?

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