re: #50 Dark_Falcon

I don’t think so. He might take action if a house doesn’t vote, but if they vote his authorization down and he attacks anyways then he’ll look like a lawless asshole. He’d walk right into a major GOP talking point if he did that, and I seriously doubt the public would support him.

The public likely will support Obama if Congress fails to act, but if Congress tells him ‘No’, then people are going to expect him to abide by that.

What talking point would that be? That he’s a “power mad despot.” They were no doubt set to accuse him of that if he took action without seeking Congress’ approval anyway, so he was fucked either way. Meanwhile, they’re backed into a wall themselves, as they just spent the previous decade arguing up and down that just the presence of WMDs in a country’s arsenal was reason enough for regime change. Remember “smoking gun” and “mushroom cloud”? The salt shaker of doom?