Two questions: 1. If the DADT repeal fails, does President Obama deserve the blame?

[ZombieHorde]

Poll question: Two questions: 1. If the DADT repeal fails, does President Obama deserve the blame?

2. If the DADT repeal succeeds, does President Obama deserve the credit?

[Unvanguard]

1. If DADT is not ended, he deserves the blame.

He is not responsible, however, for the failure of a Senate vote specifically.

As for credit, he deserves some of it, but not all. He accomplished the crucial step of getting the military on board, but has been lacking when it comes to pushing this to completion.

[vaberella]

4. He did push for completion.

1. Pentagon study has a deadline of a year.
2. Was supportive and pushed Senate to vote and allow his signature to be final decision upon review which was stuck down by the Repub Senators.

So where exactly was/is he "lacking"?

[Unvanguard]

8. The DADT compromise that is the basis of repeal legislation was achieved without him.

He signed onto it at the last minute after being totally silent about what Congress was supposed to do after the hearings in which Gates and Mullen introduced the review.

Since then, he has invested little to no effort in pushing a Senate vote or in lobbying recalcitrant Senators.

[ruggerson]

13. You do know that he and the military stripped out the anti discrimination language

that had been in the Congressional bill.

The compromise language has no anti discrimination language at all.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. President Obama can not legislate in accordance with the Constitution

Constitutionally, the blame is p;laced at the feet of the party that defeats the bill or stops it from being voted on.

[vaberella]

6. Yup, yup. But that seems to be ignored by some. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

16. It is convenient to have a scapegoat to blame...

Doesn't make it right, only easy.

[JuniperLea]

9. That takes all the "fun" out of this for some...

That so many must vote is irrelevant to the same, no doubt.

[jkshaw]

3. DADT will end this year,

Any blame for slowing the thing up belongs with the Senate Republicans.

[vaberella]

5. +Infinity. n/t

[JuniperLea]

10. Well said...

It doesn't get more clear and correct than that.

[LonePirate]

15. There is no guarantee DADT will end this year. Reid will drop the bill when the Rs deny cloture

At that point, I will continue to blam eObama for not pushing for the repeal when he had 60 votes in the Senate. He should have pushed Reid to run the Senate like Pelosi ran the House. We could have accojmplished so much more if Obama would have scrapped his foolish concern for bipartisanship and instead used his bully pulpit to push a progressive agenda. I honestly cannot think of another President who squandered as much legislative potential as he has.

[treestar]

7. What about Congress?

Geez.

[ZombieHorde]

11. Are you suggesting I remake the poll, but replace "President Obama" with "Congress?" nt

[Bluenorthwest]

12. partial credit, partial blame, depending

He is not the only factor, and this is a game that has been in play since before he arrived at all. So either way, it is a shared responsibility. The Congress, the people, the advocates all shoulder responsibility as well. A failure would in my eyes belong first to Congress, which made the lousy law in the first place. A success would in my view belong first to the wrongly discharged volunteers, past and present, those who could have no voice and those who bravely raised them when they could. This whole thing is about them, and it belongs to them.

[obxhead]

14. I'm torn on this one.

Right now it's in the Justice Departments hands. Obama of course could stroll on over there and tell them not to file an appeal. However, it is the justice departments job to defend laws passed by congress.

Now, if they do file an appeal and lose then the ruling that says DADT is unconstitutional will have much more power.

On the other hand the people that DADT hurts (destroys) need to be recognized as the equals they are. It is long past time for it to be abolished.

No vote until I ponder the questions for a bit.

[boppers]

19. It's on two tracks.

Three, actually, if you count the SecDef/Executive track....

I'm curious as to which one will go into effect first, my understanding is that the Air Force has already seen the writing on the wall.

[ZombieHorde]

21. I couldn't vote either. nt

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

17. If DADT isn't repealed during the lame duck session he will issue an executive order.

[LonePirate]

18. He will not issue an EO. He will do nothing except blame Congress and refuse to accept any blame

He does not have the courage to do what is right for America's LGBT citizens.

[VMI Dem]

20. He deserves no credit. The courts have taken care of it.

I hope his bullshit appeal falls on its face.