The imperial presidency-elect?

Obamaseal2

This letter on today’s page got me to thinking:

New administration may be full of itself

For the past few weeks, I have witnessed our newly elected commander-in-chief and his subordinates on national and local news.

On the podium is a seal that denotes “the office of the president-elect.” Believing I had forgotten much of my ninth-grade civics class, I reread our U.S. Constitution. Described therein were the offices of, requirements for and duties of the president, senators, representatives, et al. Nowhere could I find a definition of the “office of the president-elect.”

How pompous and presumptuous of those so headily and gleefully poised to assume the reins of power. Could be a sign; I don’t know.

JOHN R. CLARK
Hartsville

Obamaseal1
What it got me to thinking was this: This keeps cropping up, and I keep wondering why, because Barack Obama doesn’t strike me as this kind of guy. He is, after all, The Tieless One. These overdone trappings of gonnabe power just don’t seem like him.

Remember how everyone talked about the "Imperial Presidency" during the Nixon administration? Well, who is it on Obama’s team who is so tone-deaf as to want to project an image of an "imperial presidency-elect," or earlier, an imperial candidacy (at right)?

I had noticed the seal, too, and I thought it was pretty weird. But what I don’t know is, whose idea is this? Why does this keep happening? And why doesn’t Obama put a stop to it?

23 thoughts on “The imperial presidency-elect?

  1. Lee Muller

    ANSWER: Obama and all his entourage are tone deaf, and arrogant.
    Are you just now figuring out that socialists don’t respect your opinion?
    Face it: Obama is an inept hustler, who cannot complete a sentence unless he is reading what someone wrote for him. His entire aura is corny, hokey, and amateurish.
    And now we have Rahm Emmanuel on tape with the Illinois governor discussing the sale of Obama’s replacement.

  2. jfx

    Regarding the letter from John R. Clark, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 establishes the parameters of the office of the President- and Vice President-elect.
    http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_BASIC&contentId=24780
    Perhaps John R. Clark’s ninth grade civics class occurred prior to 1963.
    Really, it’s a small placard or seal on the front of the podium, which simply says “The Office of the President-Elect”. Presumptuous? Yes. He presumes he’ll be inaugurated in January. Imperialistic? Hardly.
    They did go overboard with some of the visual art in the brand marketing during the campaign, but more in a colorful, “zany American superhero” direction. Sunrises, flags, eagles. No hammers, no sickles, no broken crosses. But you need a really LARGE seal so that you can have a font large enough that people can clearly read your web address, go to the site, and donate!

  3. Lee Muller

    Barack Obama is not the President-Elect until, and if, the Electoral College declares him such. Until then, he is simply Mr. Obama.

  4. Bart

    Donate hell! After collecting approximately $750 million for his campaign, why should he continue to ask for donations? And, looking at the faux presidential seal on the podium does remind me of someone who considers himself above everyone else and does smack of imperialism.
    This is total insanity. Here we have a man who has selected nothing but retreads from the Clinton era and expects us to believe in “change”.
    And before everyone starts the inevitable blame Bush chant, what we are experiencing now has been building for over 20 years and as Reverend Wright so famously stated, “The chickens have come home to roost”. Just hope Brad doesn’t have an allergic reaction.
    Today, even the Democrats who have protected Fannie and Freddie have finally admitted both are heavy contributors to the financial situation we are in and admitted that both institutions lacked oversight. I guess my investment in swamp land paid off after all.
    I will be glad to see Bush out of the White House and back in Texas or where ever he chooses to land. It will be an interesting few months watching Clinton lite team work their magic on the economy, world peace, and all of the other promises made by Obama. Heck, I read another story that the ice cap is already starting to grow in the Artic. What next? I can hardly wait.

  5. p.m.

    Did anybody hear the almighty Rev. Wright’s Dec. 7 sermon, when he proclaimed that day not Pearl Harbor day, but the anniversary of Hiroshima, when America slaughtered 80,000 defenseless Jampanese?
    Behold the new and ignorant Emperor and President-Elect Obama, whose mentors have no clothes.

  6. Lee Muller

    David Axelrod said that Obama discussed the filling of his U.S. Senate seat with Governor Blogevich – Fox News interview with Axelrod, Nov 23, 2008
    Video is available on Fox News.
    Transcript on ABC News, in Jake Tapper’s article:
    http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/12/questions-arise.html
    Rahm Emmanuel also met with Blogevich last week:
    WGN
    Local reports suggest that it was Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who tipped feds off to Blagojevich’s corrupt dealings:
    CONATY: We did receive a tip this morning that perhaps all of this came together so quickly because the Governor may have reached out to Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect’s chief of staff, in attempting to leverage filling the Senate seat. And it may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did.
    Video
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/09/blagojevich-arrest-rahm-e_n_149667.html

  7. bud

    Barack Obama is not the President-Elect until, and if, the Electoral College declares him such. Until then, he is simply Mr. Obama.
    -Lee
    Technically that’s true. However, the people have spoken and Obama WILL be sworn in January 20. This is much ado about absolutely nothing.

  8. Lee Muller

    No one in power has the guts to touch the fact that Obama has not proven he is a natural-born American citizen.
    No one wants to face the fact that Hillary Clinton is barred by the Constitution from holding office as the Secretary of State.
    The scales are falling from the media’s eyes, and they see a bumbling, inarticulate puppet, re-installing the entire Clinton regime, and now connected to the sleazy selling of his Senate seat.
    So we can continue this, and when the corruption reaches a sufficient level for the media to move from denial, the court case will move forward to remove Obama and Hillary Clinton from office.

  9. Lee Muller

    So far, lawsuits by individuals have been dismissed on the flimsy excuse that citizens have no right to sue, because the President is not elected directly.
    The federal judge in the Berg case stalled until it was too late, then made the ruling. That was just a ruse by a partisan judge.
    It would require a lawsuit by an Elector or a Secretary of State at this point, and none have the courage to ask Obama to present proof of citizenship, which he refused to provide to the federal court.
    The Supreme Court didn’t want to get involved at this point, without a suit by a Secretary of State.
    After Obama takes office, as soon as he signs a bill into law, any citizen directly affected will have grounds to challenge the validity of the law, based on Obama’s not meeting the qualifications to hold the office.

  10. Brad Warthen

    To follow up on what jfx said, we had this letter in today’s paper:

    Transition office has existed for 44 years

    In reference to John R. Clark’s letter Tuesday, “New administration may be full of itself,” the basis for the office of the president-elect is set in several pieces of legislation, namely, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 and the two amendments to that law in 1998 and 2000. Section 3 of this law grants office space, payment to members of the transition staff and postal and telecommunication services to the president-elect.

    This is nowhere near new; George W. Bush made use of the act and its provisos in 2000. Barack Obama is simply the first to refer to it as the “office of the president-elect.” No more, no less.

    ANDY STOUT
    Newberry

    Of course, Mr. Stout sort of misses the larger point. The "office of the President-Elect" shtick is silly, unnecessary and pretentious. And like I said, it seems unlike Obama. So I wonder again, whose idea was this?

  11. bud

    Brad, what in the world is your point? So Obama had a few signs saying he was the president elect. SO WHAT.

  12. p.m.

    Bud, the point is that even if the office of president elect has existed for 44 years, Barack Obama seems to be the first fellow who spoke from behind a podium with signage to proclaim him thus.
    Why does he need that kind of badge? It’s like a CEO wearing a hat that identifies him as the CEO. And in the case of Obama, now the most easily recognizable figure in all the world, it’s super-superfluous.

  13. zzazzeefrazzee

    “No one in power has the guts to touch the fact that Obama has not proven he is a natural-born American citizen.”
    No, those in power know better than to lend conspiracy theories even the appearance of validity.
    No one wants to face the fact that Hillary Clinton is barred by the Constitution from holding office as the Secretary of State.”
    I guess you’ve never heard of the “Saxbe fix”, then, have you?
    “The scales are falling from the media’s eyes, and they see a bumbling, inarticulate puppet,”
    I’m sorry, but are you describing yourself again?
    “…and now connected to the sleazy selling of his Senate seat.”
    Of course, you’ll find “connections” where others find nothing pertinent or tangible.
    [QUOTE]So we can continue this, and when the corruption reaches a sufficient level for the media to move from denial, the court case will move forward to remove Obama and Hillary Clinton from office.[/QUOTE]
    Gee, and a few months ago, you were all but predicting that the first mosque would be installed in the White House.

  14. Lee Muller

    FACT: Obama has failed to produce any proof of his birth to any secretary of state, any election official, any court of law, any journalist, or any citizen.
    Barack Obama is still unproven to be legally qualified to hold any elected office.
    FACT: The Constitution makes no provision for any curing or “fix” of its prohibition against an elected official assuming an office of which they have increased the salary.
    Hillary Clinton cannot legally be the Secretary of State.

  15. zzazzeefrazzee

    “FACT: Obama has failed to produce any proof of his birth to any secretary of state, any election official, any court of law, any journalist, or any citizen.”
    Right, it’s “never” been produced by any jounralist or citizen!!! LOL!!! That’s why those detailed images have been publicly posted with detailed images at the non-partisan Annenberg Fact Check, this validity of it has been confirmed by hawaii officials, and the SCOTUS rejected the validity of the plaintiffs case. That means you’re just a die-hard conspiracy theorist.
    “FACT: The Constitution makes no provision for any curing or “fix” of its prohibition against an elected official assuming an office of which they have increased the salary.”
    That may be, but in all honestly, then you’ll obviously have to blame TAFT and NIXON for setting that as a precedent, instead of Obama and Hillary, RIGHT????
    Secondly, you’ve conveniently ignored the nature of the fix itself- that the salary increase (established by executive order by President Bush, not one approved by Hillary in a vote), simply be reversed. While not all constitutional experts feel that this is in accordance with the letter of the law as expressed in the constitution, the same document has some rather interesting things to say about our election process in general that are no longer observed.
    Of course, if your whining about this had any merit to begin with, the SCOTUS might consider the issue? Oh that’s right, you probably think that they’re all a bunch of socialists for refusing to hear the lame case about Obama’s birth certificate.

  16. Lee Muller

    The Constitution makes no provision for curing one’s vote by a post hoc reduction in salary. Hillary voted for a salary increase for the Secretary of State, and she is legally forbidden from holding that office, period.
    Obama’s lack of a birth certificate will land him back in court with challenges to any legislation he signs while pretending to be president.

  17. Lee Muller

    ZZZZdumb,
    The next time the police or a cashier ask for your identification, just give them the URL of a website with an image of whatever you claim to be your birth certificate, driver’s license, or whatever, and see if they accept it.

  18. SCModerate

    You’re wrong the Supreme Court ruled that Senator Clinton can become Secretary of State. She has argued to take a pay cut and therefore can accept her office. I ask that you guys respect the decision of Americans (the majority) that made Barack Obama our President and wish him the best as he transforms into this office. The success of his administration will not only influence his re-election but America’s financial immovability and our image on the international stage.

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