What Powers will President Obama Give Back?

Here's is my post from Saturday, October 13, 2007: A Grotesque Willful Suspension of Disbelief; Referencing the prior post (October 11, 2007), this was a letter I sent to the Boston Globe earlier this week: Editor, Anyone who believes Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has craved power her entire life and who has destroyed so many people's lives trying to grab it, when she insists, if elected, she will "roll back President Bush's expansion of executive authority" is guilty of a grotesque willful suspension of disbelief (Clinton vows to check executive power, October 11, A18). (End of letter.) End of post from October 13, 2007.

Obviously, I thought Sen. Clinton would be the Democratic Party's nominee but since I might be wrong, I now have to consider Sen. Obama will.

During this week's vote to renew the FISA law governing the surveillance of terrorists, Sen. Obama voted in support of the bill and in support of President Bush. Sen. Clinton voted against the bill.

At one time, Sen. Obama vowed he would filibuster the FISA bill as long as the bill contained immunity for telecommunications company's that cooperated with the government against the terrorists immediately after 9/11 and prospectively. Sen. Obama did not filibuster this bill; again, he voted for it.

The sentiment I expressed in the October 13, 2007 post is exactly the same point here: What expansion of executive power under the Bush Administration is President Obama prepared to cede back to Congress? This has to be the first debate question he is asked. I suggest there are no powers he will cede back.

Since Sen. Clinton does not look like she will be President any time soon, her vote was no surprise.