A “president’s day” message from Thomas R. Eddlem
The presidency itself needs to be knocked down from its perch. The only thing that will save the American republic is a renewed focus upon the Congress and cutting down the presidency to size. The founding fathers designed the legislature – Congress – to be the dominant branch of a very small federal government.
That pretty-much says it. Whether it’s Dick Cheney saying he thinks that Obama “should declare war on Iran” (under the constitution only Congress declares war), or Barack Obama doing, well, just about everything he does – the executive has aggrandize itself with such powers that old King George himself would have been jealous.
What would Jefferson, Madison, Paine, and Adams have done?
This post has laid out two general ideas. One, that the power of the executive should be reduced in relation to the legaslative and two, that individuals such as Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are aggrandizing the executive branch.
The post is vague on both points. No examples are given of how the power of the presidency should be reduced.
The direct quote of Dick Cheney is effective. It is presumably Cheney's actual words and it points out his misunderstanding about the role of executive and legislative branched as described in the constitution.
The reference to "everything he does" in reference to Obama does not give examples of how Barack Obama has aggrandized the executive. Plus by grouping Obama with Cheney implies that he may be doing things that go outside of the constitution, since Cheney's quote displayed such a misunderstanding. It's not clear whether Boldin is claiming that there is an issue of legality or rather of appropriateness.
Also the past particle form of the verb to aggrandize should be used i.e. "aggrandized".
I was quite amused at the self-aggrandizing sophism from the Bob. I also enjoyed the commentary by Mr. Eddlem. Without being overly verbose, he clearly stated his message. Thanks to Bob for taking time-out from grading papers to add to the discussion. I would say more but I'm afraid that I might leave my participles dangling.