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US Presidents on Presidential Power

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-think-about dept.

Tod Landis writes "Responding to George Bush's statement that he will preserve executive power for his "predecessors", I've assembled a collection of quotes from those predecessors. Most saw executive power differently..."

9 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Come on... by the+darn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm no fan of the Dub, but any collection of quotes can easily manipulated to suit your viewpoint via selection bias. It would be better to examine the actions previous presidents took with regard to defending the presidential "turf."

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post.
  2. I can do the same. by nes11 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sitting here with a book on my desk call "Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents" by Richard E. Neustadt. Perhaps you should read it. It's very easy to pick & choose random quotes & show an agreement that's really not there. Give me a few minutes & I could create a list of quotes that shows that Bush has a very conservative view of President Power.

    In case you're seriously interested, a few other good books are
    "The Paradox of the American Presidency" by Thomas E. Cronin
    and
    "The Ferocious Engine of Democracy" (2 volumes) by Michael P. Riccards.

  3. It Ain't that hard. by DAldredge · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is the the Politics section of /. or the Kerry cheering section? I thought that the editors said they would have a balanced selection of stories in this section?

    WTF has happened to /.? I wish they would hurry up and close the pending sale.

  4. Oh, come on now... by CXI · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Doesn't CmdrTaco have a personal blog somewhere to bash Bush instead of doing so on what was once a good news site?

    Not only are the quotes out of context, but they are used in error. Furthermore, congress hasn't declared war since WWII, so it's hard to pretend that Bush doesn't have any precedent if he did go in without approval. Of course, there was approval so this whole "news story" is a farce. Way to go and pull a Dan Rather. At least he finally had to apologize.

  5. Humph by elmegil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can we mod an entire article as -1 flamebait? Please? And I don't even like the shrub....

    --
    7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
  6. Both the Senate and House of Reps.... by Nagatzhul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    authorized Bush to go after Iraq. He did not make the choice on his own. The House of Representatives voted 296-133 in favor and the Senate voted 77-23 in favor. How was this a unilateral decision on Bush's part?

    More Bush Bashing on /.

    --
    "All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
    1. Re:Both the Senate and House of Reps.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Both the Senate and House of Reps.... authorized Bush to go after Iraq.

      They authorized him to make the decision. He made the bad decision by himself.

  7. Call for civility by jgardn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am getting quite tired of the baseless claims that people are making. We complain and complain because of the poison that is in politics. Well, let's get our act together and fix it.

    Starting right now, let's all be a lot more civil.

    Despite our political differences, we are all countrymen, in the national sense and in the sense that we all live in this world. We should respect each other and never ever attack someone's character. Let their actions speak for their character. People will be smart enough to judge for themselves. This includes everyone from John Kerry to George Bush to Saddam Hussein down to everybody in this forum.

    We are all able to share our opinions. When we do, let's be clear by prefacing such statements with "I believe" or "I think" or "My opinion is". Let's never ever try to represent opinion as fact.

    When we do discuss fact and logic, let's be very careful to get things right the first time. Quote your sources accurately.

    The way you attack factual and logical arguments is by attacking the individual claims. For instance, if I claimed that Sadr City is now peaceful, you would attack that claim by showing me reports that it is not. You wouldn't attack that claim by calling me a liar.

    If you want to end the poison in politics, you end it with yourself first. Here are my points again.

    1. NEVER attack a person or their character.

    2. ALWAYS preface your opinions with "It is my opinion that..." or "I feel that...".

    3. ALWAYS support claims of fact with evidence, and always quote that evidence accurately. Show your logic in clear steps.

    4. ALWAYS attack the claims and the logical steps people make with more or contrary evidence.

    --
    The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
  8. Re:Ok, even I have to cry "Lefty" on this one by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Except...for both the Afghani Theater and the Iraqi theater Bush DID go to Congress and got approval. Sure, there's some argument as to approval for what and under what conditions on Iraq, but approval from Congress WAS sought and obtained. So all that we're left with is Bush protecting priviledge for his "predicessors"....

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.