The Obama I Know

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cass-r-sunstein/the-obama-i-know_b_90034.html

Cass R. Sunstein
The Obama I Know

Posted March 5, 2008 | 12:53 PM (EST)


Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Obama was my colleague at the University of Chicago Law School.

He is also a friend. But since his election to the Senate, he does not exactly call every day.

On this occasion, he had an important topic to discuss: the controversy over President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls between Americans and suspected terrorists. I had written a short essay suggesting that the surveillance might be lawful. Before taking a public position, Obama wanted to talk the problem through.

In the space of about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the President's power as commander-in-chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more.

Obama wanted to consider the best possible defence of what Bush had done. To every argument I made, he listened and offered a counter-argument. After the issue had been exhausted, Obama said that he thought the programme was illegal, but now had a better understanding of both sides. He thanked me for my time.

This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama's mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side.

This is the Barack Obama I have known for nearly 15 years -- a careful and even-handed analyst of law and policy, unusually attentive to multiple points of view.

snip//

As president, Barack Obama would be a genuine uniter. If he proves able to achieve great things, for his nation and for the world, it will be above all for that reason.

[polichick]

1. Thanks for that post!

[Window]

2. Very impressive!

Thanks for sharing.



Peace:thumbsup:

[NoBushSpokenHere]

3. Kicked and Rec'd nt

[thunder rising]

4. What a concept, a President that abides by and upholds the law.

Instead of trying to find ways around it with backroom deals with Canadian gov and other sleazy figures.

[grace0418]

25. A president who knows what laws ARE and believes they apply to him.

What a change that would be.

[thunder rising]

5. And that's 5 votes ... off to the greatest page!

[DesertFlower]

6. thank you.

i just voted Greatest page too.

[bigtree]

7. "He refuses to demonize his political opponents"

Not so, with his supporters here. Not so, with his senior campaign staff.

[babylonsister]

20. Actually, I wish he'd take off the gloves. While I love how he's

run his campaign, it's time to defend it against the likes of your gal.

[housewolf]

8. Good read!

Thanks for posting.

[pretzel4gore]

9. at the risk of being a spoiler...

it's all a hoax. Bush was never elected, certainly not in 2000. We can bend over backward to discern the legal basis of what we were given on dec12/00, but face it, these bastards were and are criminals, and while Barack can skip in the dirt, out of necessity, to see him indulging bush by connecting the dots of the rube goldberg contraption that junyer bush says broke the world land speed record after junyer pissed in the gas tank, which was all that was needed, according to dingbat one! That's bs. The pile of junk bush created is just that, and we can pretend all we want, but pretending doesn't make it true. And after junyer goes, we will be stuck with a pile of very real junk....that once ran so well many thought it would take us to the stars....no one thinks that now. Now we just hope to get it running again....

[RBInMaine]

10. Awesome post. THANKS !

[IndyOp]

11. Oh.My.God. -- Cass SUNSTEIN -- The Second Bill of Rights - FDR's Unfinished Revolution

Visionary. Amazing. Mind-blowing. :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

The Second Bill of Rights: FDR'S Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More than Ever
http://www.amazon.com/Second-Bill-Rights-Unfinished-Revolution/dp/0465083323

The Second Bill of Rights brings back from obscurity the greatest speech of the greatest president of the twentieth century, to issue a stirring call for much-needed rights that were never enacted.

In 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a State of the Union Address that was arguably the greatest political speech of the twentieth century. The speech began what Cass R. Sunstein calls the Second American Revolution by giving form and specificity, for the first time, to the concept of human economic rights. Many of the great legislative achievements of the past sixty years stem from Roosevelt's proposal for a Second Bill of Rights. Yet these rights have never been written into the Constitution, and they remain the subject of passionate debate. In recent years they have even lost ground.

Using FDR's speech as a launching point, Sunstein examines the "legal realist" school of thought, which decisively refuted the idea of laissez-faire economics; describes how Roosevelt gradually developed the idea of a Second Bill of Rights; and asks why the Second Bill, which was almost enacted under the Warren Court, has never attained the constitutional status FDR sought for it. The reason, Sunstein maintains, is not anything unique to American culture or temperament but a particular historical accident: the election of Richard Nixon as President in 1968.

This is an ambitious, sweeping book that argues for a new vision of FDR, of constitutional history, and of our current political scene. The Second Bill of Rights is an integral part of the American tradition and the starting point for contemporary political reform.

[babylonsister]

14. Thanks for connecting those dots-I didn't know who she was. nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

17. he

[knight_of_the_star]

12. There's an interesting implication

"This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama's mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side."

So the other Dems who quite rightly attacked Bush's initiative didn't take similar consideration?

[sloppyjoe25s]

13. Straight to the Top! One of best posts all week!

K&R as hard as possible.

This is EXACTLY the point. Not only is supporting Obama not about being a cult - it is supporting THE MOST SUBSTANTIVE
AND INTELLIGENT AND HARD WORKING AND ETHICAL LEADER OF OUR LIFETIMES.

Thanks for a great post!

[puebloknot]

15. K&R to keep it alive until the morning. A heartening post! nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

16. Good article -- great message.

K & R

[FrenchieCat]

18. That's what we need.....a thoughtful President.......

[Neshanic]

19. "unusually attentive to multiple points of view" Republican for "sucker".

[Voice for Peace]

21. That's my sense of him. nt

[woolldog]

22. k

:kick:

[KoKo]

23. Sunstein has a very good caution at the end of the article...that I wonder if folks bothered to read

Sunstein makes this cautionary observation at the end:


From knowing Obama for many years, I have no doubts about his ability to lead. He knows a great deal, and he is a quick learner. Even better, he knows what he does not know, and there is no question that he would assemble an accomplished, experienced team of advisers. His brilliant administration of his own campaign provides helpful evidence here.

But there is some fragility to the public fervor that envelops him. Crowds and cults can be fickle, and if some of his decisions disappoint, or turn out badly, his support will diminish. Some people think it might even collapse.

My own concern involves the importance of internal debate. The greatest American presidents (above all Lincoln and Roosevelt) benefited from robust dialogue and from advisers who avoided saying, "how wonderful you are," and were willing to say: "Mr President, your thinking about this is all wrong."

Because Obama himself is exceptionally able, and because so many people are treating him as a near-messiah, his advisers might be too deferential, too unwilling to question. There is a real risk here. But I believe that his humility, and his intense desire to seek out dissenting views, will prove crucial safeguards.

In the 2000 campaign, Bush proclaimed himself a "uniter, not a divider", only to turn out to be the most divisive President in memory. Because of his own certainty, and his lack of curiosity about what others might think, Bush polarized the nation. Many of his most ambitious plans went nowhere as a result.

As president, Barack Obama would be a genuine uniter. If he proves able to achieve great things, for his nation and for the world, it will be above all for that reason.

[NC_Nurse]

24. Another excellent post!

What would we do without you, 'sister!

K&R:yourock:

[damonm]

26. MASSIVE K&R!!