Obama, Congress, and the Great ISIS Punt
U.S. President Barack Obama, center, delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergPresident Barack Obama's call for a resolution of war–sorry, of force–against ISIS came late in the State of the Union. It wasn't previewed in the early sections seen by reporters and members of Congress. And it was confusingly phrased. After saying that the United States was leading a "broad coalition" in the Levant, Obama added: "I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorize the use of force against ISIL." The mission was ongoing, and would go on unless Congress decided to limit it.
Obama's vagueness was met with Republican vagueness. After the speech, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine—the Democrats' chief advocate for a new AUMF—issued a statement saying the president "did not signal an intention to send a draft to Congress for consideration." Kate Nocera found Republicans either hopeful that Obama would send down a draft of an AUMF, or cynical that he'd come up with anything good. "We need some leadership out of the commander-in-chief and he’s provided none," said Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a Republican class of 2010 winner who took the seat of Iraq War critic Russ Feingold.