It makes sense now.

[Unknown Beatle]

Nov 4, 2008, I was very excited about the future. Good things were about to happen. A future to look forward to. Obama was elected president!

Jan 11, 2009, president-elect Obama said he was unlikely to authorize a broad inquiry into Bush administration programs like domestic eavesdropping or the treatment of terrorism suspects. As he put it, “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

Wait, what?

Oh well, perhaps Obama doesn't like to delve into the past as it's all about the future now. Good things are coming our way. Or so it seemed.

Fast forward five years. The NSA scandal; Obama lying; Clapper lying to congress and then Obama picking him as an independent, unbiased person to look into the NSA; eavesdropping worse than thought; Snowden deemed a terrorist for whistleblowing; Obama and drones; Obama considering Summers for fed chair; and on and on and on...

Now it makes sense why Obama didn't go after McMonkey and his cronies. The bush extended presidential powers were in his hands and he didn't want to let go. Obama wanted to extend them even further.

[LearningCurve]

1. It is rare that anyone gives up powers once granted

That is always the danger for so-called temporary measures. They have a way of becoming permanent.

[KurtNYC]

2. I don't think that is clear at all.

There are many potential reasons why Obama did not clean up after the Bush administration. The majority of the federal government is made up of people who never leave. Politicians have been talking about cleaning out Washington for generations. Ross Perot ran on it, for example. It sounds good but it is beyond the powers of the Presidency.

[Unknown Beatle]

3. With both the house and senate

behind him, he refused to clean up a big mess left behind by McMonkey.

It is not beyond the powers of the presidency to go after war criminals.

[KurtNYC]

7. The Presidency is the only office that has a term limit in DC

The SCOTUS and congress critters are there for life.

Call me a cynic but you can't hand out speeding tickets at the Indy 500 -- the game is the game. And the game of the US Government is to keep us in a perpetual state of war. There is a sincere belief that being at war since 1942 is what keeps the U.S. going. It drives the economy by keeping the dollar up and giving us preferred access to natural resources and foreign markets. We have defined ourselves as the 'World's Policeman.' If we want to change that then we have to come up with a new view of ourselves and our role in the world.

[DirkGently]

6. It's a bit of both, most likely.

I think most people appreciate Obama did not have the ability to come in and drop large hammers on every abuse of power we saw during the Bush administrations. These power structures are entrenched in a variety of ways, from actual people left behind to known and unknown collateral repercussions for pursusing them.

But I also think Obama has been miserly with his political capital. The way he snapped his head back into his shell on health reform, giving in to the insurance indutry and Big Pharma without a shot fired.

The acceleration of attacks on whistleblowers, including expansion of the misuse of the Espionage Act. Personally signing off on drone strike "kill lists," including the American living in Yemen, whose death Obama reportedly referred to as "an easy call."

And this latest reaction to the NSA scandal has all the hallmarks of a determination not to reform, but to make the minimal amount of soothing noises necessary to calm public outcry. Getting Clapper and Sunstein, both advocates of government lying to the public to advance and protect policy, pretty much establishes that the gameplan is to do as little as possible.

Obama was not in a position to "fix everything." But he might have accomplished a lot more by risking a little more.

[bvar22]

12. What is NOT beyond the power of the Presidency is appointments.

Appointments of the People to head these agencies rests solely with The President. Keeping on most of the Republicans and Spooks from the BFEE to run these agencies was just a taste of things to come.

President Obama had The Perfect Opportunity to FIRE Clapper and appoint a Democratic reformer to head this agency,
but instead chose to Circle the Wagons around Clapper.

Heck of a Job, Clappy!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/james-clapper-intelligence-chief-criticism

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrpts absolutely." Lord Acton

M'lord Acton is proven right again.

[whatchamacallit]

5. It only makes sense if you're willing and able to accept that

Obama was hand picked by the PTB.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. There may be a range of candidates who are aceptable to them.

In 2008 I expect they didn't care whether it was Barack or Hillary. Anyone who might present a real challenge to the status quo, like Kucinich, was quickly made into an object of ridicule, as they did with Dean in 2004.

[whatchamacallit]

11. Yup.

Waking up and smelling the coffee kinda sucks. :/

[bvar22]

13. Hand picked and carefully groomed for a number of years.

I didn't want to believe it at first,
but at this point, that IS the only thing that makes sense.

The good news is that it is going to be damn near impossible for them to take an unknown and use the same Hope & Change Marketing Scam again.
THAT one is all used up.



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS,[/font]
not by their promises or excuses.

[whatchamacallit]

14. Maybe if they flip back to the deranged imperialist cowboy archetype for awhile

Hope and Change will be refurbished.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. It made (very disappointing) sense with the transition team appointments.

For me, it was the same feeling I got watching the 3-Card Monty guy sweep my money off his card table many years ago.

And like that experience so many years ago, I learned my lesson.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. I missed that

I was completely focused on Lily Ledbetter.