Why The White House ‘Stopped Short’ Of Asking For Vote On ISIS Syria Strikes

Posted by | September 9, 2014 11:23 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Politics Tommy Christopher Top Stories

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President Obama will give a speech on Wednesday to outline his  plans for dealing with ISIS, so 90% of Monday’s daily briefing was devoted to the issue, and 90% of that 90% was devoted to trying to figure out what the president meant when he said he wants “buy-in” from Congress. In his interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, oft-cited at yesterday’s briefing, the president said, “I’m confident that I have the authorization that I need to protect the American people, and I’m always going to do what’s necessary to protect the American people. But I do think it’s important for Congress to understand what the plan is, to have buy in, to debate it.”

One of the better attempts to uncover just what the president was talking about came from ABC News’ Jon Karl, who asked Press Secretary Josh Earnest, essentially, what the ever-loving eff does “buy-in” mean? Earnest’s response to Karl, however, was pretty similar to all the other stabs we took at that question yesterday:

“Well, again, if you want to get some insight into the president’s current thinking about this, then I would refer you to the answer that he gave to Chuck in the interview 48 hours ago. But the other thing that I would point out that’s also part of your question is if the president decides to expand the operation. And these are the kinds of questions that are best answered after the president has made some fundamental decisions about what he wants to do there — that if there is an expansion in the operation that takes place, what consequences are there for a whole range of things: for our diplomatic relationships, what kind of assistance are we going to seek from our partners; what kind of assistance would we seek from regional governments in terms of the role that they could play here; and what role does Congress have.”

The debate over striking ISIS in Syria has the surreal quality of President Tyrant Overreeachbama seeming to claim unilateral authority to strike ISIS in Syria, and Republicans seeming to be perfectly fine with that. These are the same Republicans who… CONTINUE READING

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Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

11 responses to Why The White House ‘Stopped Short’ Of Asking For Vote On ISIS Syria Strikes

  1. Airedelapaz September 9th, 2014 at 14:14

    I honestly don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to stop ISIS/ISIL or the Islamic extremists or Islamic terrorists, or whatever they are called this week. They change their names and alliances as best suits them and no one else. We’ve been caught in that trap one too many times.
    Look what they’ve been doing in Europe, specifically England, France, Germany. They don’t want peace, they want land and converts.

    • Tom Ward September 9th, 2014 at 14:34

      Of course we want them to stop being terrorists, the question is whether bombing them permanently stops them or not. History shows it’s a temporary solution that usually makes the problem even worse in a few years. Then they come back in even greater numbers.

      I see isolated incidents in England, France, Germany that do not elicit a type of response you are suggesting. The Muslims from the ME who do immigrate to European countries always end up assimilating into the culture that’s already there. They always end up having to adapt to the culture there more than the culture there has to adapt to them. That’s always how immigration works. Same thing with S. American immigrants here. And for whatever reason there are always people afraid that’s not how it’s going to work…

      • Tom Ward September 9th, 2014 at 14:36

        “Dick Cheney Tells GOP It’s Time To Restart The Iraq War Machine”

        I mean, what else do we need to know we are doing the wrong thing here?

  2. Airedelapaz September 9th, 2014 at 14:14

    I honestly don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to stop ISIS/ISIL or the Islamic extremists or Islamic terrorists, or whatever they are called this week. They change their names and alliances as best suits them and no one else. We’ve been caught in that trap one too many times.
    Look what they’ve been doing in Europe, specifically England, France, Germany. They don’t want peace, they want land and converts.

  3. juicyfruityyy September 9th, 2014 at 14:34

    I will just wait until Wednesday. To hear the answer from the President.

  4. juicyfruityyy September 9th, 2014 at 14:34

    I will just wait until Wednesday. To hear the answer from the President.

  5. granpa.usthai September 9th, 2014 at 15:16

    eg: POTUS Obama wants some public guarantees that there will be mutual ‘ass coverings’ if things don’t work out too well, like Syria saying ‘ no you can’t turn Syrian women and children into crispy fried humans like you do in Iraq, and Russia or China backing them up.’

  6. granpa.usthai September 9th, 2014 at 15:16

    eg: POTUS Obama wants some public guarantees that there will be mutual ‘ass coverings’ if things don’t work out too well, like Syria saying ‘ no you can’t turn Syrian women and children into crispy fried humans like you do in Iraq, and Russia or China backing them up.’

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