My take on this is; this stuff probably goes on all the time.
There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. Obama directly making an offer is obviously the wrong way. Going through a third party, and sending out “feelers” would probably be the right way.
So you are buying into that old line.
No controlling legal authority?
I’m not buy it.
Can you imagine anyone in the Bush administration, either father or son, doing something like this.