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End of Iran Deal Underscores a Weakness of Obama's 'Pen and Phone' Presidency
Reason ^ | May 9, 2018 | by Nick Gillespie

Posted on 05/09/2018 10:01:13 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

If your "signature achievements" are done by executive power alone, they might as well be written in pencil.

Say what you will about Donald Trump pulling the United States out of the Iran deal. Personally, I wish the United States had stayed in. But this sort of zig-zag is exactly what happens when you end up governing with your pen and your phone, as Barack Obama did.

Faced with a recalcitrant, obstructionist Republican Congress that he helped bring to power two years into his presidency, Obama increasingly gave up on getting congressional approval for anything: military actions, immigration policy, trade policy, net neutrality, environmental regulations. Instead, as Damon Root wrote a few years back, Obama did exactly what he once had criticized his predecessor for and went full Andrew Jackson.

Well, you live by the pen and you die by the pen, and so DACA, the Paris Accords, and the Iran deal (routinely described as "one of President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy achievements") are down the tubes.

If Obama had tried to negotiate the Iran deal as a treaty, rather than an agreement, he would have needed the Senate to sign off on it. Same thing with U.S. involvement in the Paris Accords and a bunch of other "signature achievements."

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iran; islam; nuclear; terrorism
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1 posted on 05/09/2018 10:01:14 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer; Lumper20; mosaicwolf; SkyPilot; HarleyLady27; ZULU; Kaslin; Liz; bevperl; ...

Let’s demand that Zero and the RATs pay back the billions they gave to Iran that was stolen from the US taxpayers in the middle of the night. American patriots killed and permanently injured via Iranian terrorism should sue Obama and the RAT Party for their suffering. Zero and the RATs including the gutter slime, Kerry, enabled the terrorism that harmed our military.


2 posted on 05/09/2018 10:06:11 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

A nuclear deal besides.


3 posted on 05/09/2018 10:07:46 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Personally, I wish the United States had stayed in.

___________________________________________

Typical libertarian response.


4 posted on 05/09/2018 10:09:22 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Obama is such a fraud.

Constantly touting signature pigments of his imagination...


5 posted on 05/09/2018 10:10:32 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Oldeconomybuyer

The author seems internally confused and conflicted, but does manage to observe that deals made only with a President are only good while he’s in Office.


7 posted on 05/09/2018 10:12:18 AM PDT by Southack (The one thing preppers need from the 1st World? http://tinyurl.com/ktfwljc .)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Yep, erase Obama from the painting.

The bushes and chair can stay.


8 posted on 05/09/2018 10:12:43 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I LOVE that. Now if we could just get OBAMACARE PERMANENTLY ERASED!!!!!!


9 posted on 05/09/2018 10:14:18 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: Vendome

Obama and his signature figments...


10 posted on 05/09/2018 10:14:28 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
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To: ExTexasRedhead

AMEN!


11 posted on 05/09/2018 10:15:34 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Great political cartoon.

5.56mm


12 posted on 05/09/2018 10:19:10 AM PDT by M Kehoe (THIS SPACE FOR RENT)
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To: Southack

Everyone was sure Hillary would win after all.


13 posted on 05/09/2018 10:19:42 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: ExTexasRedhead

yep never understood that plane full of cash, actual currency of many nations being sent to Iran.

I always wonder, how much of that cash was skimmed off by dudes who drive trucks and forklifts at the airport, and how much of the cash actually ended up in the bank account of the Treasury of Iran.


14 posted on 05/09/2018 10:19:46 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Oldeconomybuyer; All
The corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Congress let Obama get away with all kinds of unconstitutional mischief during his last term.
Obama open mic slip: 'After my election I have more flexibility'
Patriots not only need to reconsider the 17th and 22nd Amendments, but they need to make sure that Congress is willing to impeach and remove corrupt presidents.
15 posted on 05/09/2018 10:22:24 AM PDT by Amendment10
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To: Oldeconomybuyer


16 posted on 05/09/2018 10:22:26 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Faced with a recalcitrant, obstructionist Republican Congress that he helped bring to power two years into his presidency, Obama increasingly gave up on getting congressional approval for anything: military actions, immigration policy, trade policy, net neutrality, environmental regulations.

The Constitution is there to make sure that whacky, harmful policies don't get deployed. If Obama had tried, in good faith, to negotiate a meaningful treaty, he might have been surprised at the Senate response. The trouble is that by the time the Iran deal was struck, Obama had spent any political capital he had and lost any remaining goodwill.

He would almost have certainly gotten nowhere with a Republican opposition whose "top priority" was, according to "Cocaine Mitch" McConnell, making Obama "a one-term president."

And there is the bias for all to see.

-PJ

17 posted on 05/09/2018 10:28:01 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s fitting that a Fake President signed this Fake Deal. Rush revealed today that Obama signed the deal, but the Iranians didn’t! No doubt, Valerie Jarrett told him that’s an old Iranian custom.


18 posted on 05/09/2018 10:28:39 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: SERKIT

How to resize an image:

img src=” image.jpg” width=”360”


19 posted on 05/09/2018 10:35:03 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Iran Deal = Payment for Pizza...................


20 posted on 05/09/2018 10:38:11 AM PDT by Red Badger (Remember all the great work Obama did for the black community?.............. Me neither.)
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