j.r. leonard

It's plausible to me that a competent president might face a situation where he knows the right thing to do is to declassify something; he has the whole picture. It's not plausible to me that there is a situation in which the right thing to do is to change a weather forecast

Similarly, I don't think he should be able to, for example, say that the census actually found 300 million people live in Alabama and that's how elections will be determined from now on because he's the president and has ultimate say so

The particulars are going to lie in the relevant legislation. Lots of authorities vested in the executive are explicitly given to “the president and his designates.” But often Congress directs the executive to follow certain guidelines, which I imagine is the case with the census

By the way, I fully support Congress retaking it’s rightful place and restraining executive authority, but that seems to be something people are for or against in line with whether their guy is in office or not

I never thought to myself "Go, Obama, be an irresponsible asshole!"

Come on man, that might be the dumbest possible interpretation. I stated a plain fact: people’s views on executive authority tends to be largely dictated by how much they agree with or like the executive. If that’s wrong, respond with a real counter

Or on what sort of authority is being discussed. Say, should a president be able to make recess appointments when the Senate is effectively in recess vs. should a president have the ability to put children in cages.