President Obama has nominated Acting Under Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning to be Secretary of the Army. That would seem to be an unremarkable appointment, just move the under up, but it is worthy of remark because Mr. Fanning is openly gay and of course will be the first such to ever head a branch of the U.S. military. Until 2011 openly gay/lesbian people could not serve at all in the military, the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibited it. Now they may, and will serve "under" an openly gay man. Until being named the Under Secretary Fanning was Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense and before that was Under Secretary of the Air Force. The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Senate.
In his second term President Obama has made a number of decisions on issues that are similar to the Fanning appointment it seems to me: immigration, trade, Cuba, Iran, Denali, are others that immediately come to mind. On each, big and small, substantive and symbolic, Obama has affected Change and on each he has done it Alone, using his chief executive power and bypassing as much as he can the national legislature.
Congress drove Obama to distraction in his first term. No sooner was Obamacare passed than the Democrats got waxed in the mid-term elections. The Demos have gotten waxed ever since and the Tea Party Republicans have tried every which way ever since the 2010 elections to undo what the 2008 Congress did in passing Obamacare. Then they shut down the frigging government. Obama couldn't get anything done except smoke cigarettes with John Boehner on the White House balcony. Second term, Obama ain't playin'.
Immigration, he just did it, signed an executive order, all Congress could do was bitch, which they did, which they continue to do. Renaming Mt. McKinley: done, stroke of the pen. Ohioans, fuck 'em.
The Trans-Pacific...whatever it's called, the trade deal, trade deals always have been negotiated at the executive level but Congress has the power to ratify. TPP was negotiated in secret! That was how Obama screwed Congress on that one. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, et al went nuts, Obama went nuts back on them. Obama (the executive branch) negotiated that thing, one complex mother too, negotiated it (or significant parts) in secret, it was a zillion pages long (it was long) and complex)), and under fast-track authority Congress had like 15 minutes to vote on it (it was short). Then... I forget what happened to it. Canada balked over cows or something, the Japanese balked over intellectual property, people were balking. That thing will get done. See Iran. Obama gets a lot done out of public purview.
Cuba, too; restored diplomatic relations in an executive decision after negotiations with President Raul Castro, "Congress, you wanna hold up an ambassador's appointment, knock yourselves out, the empty embassy in Havana will be there waiting." Obama needs Congress to lift the embargo against Cuba, which they will not do, but I read just today that he's taking other executive action to undermine the embargo, easing this restriction, ending that one, doing what he can as president while Congress holds its breath until its face turns red. "Congress, you can turn purple, you can pass out and DIE, don't let me stop you."
The Iran deal was a gleam in the president's eye going back to his first term, if memory serves. Sure seems the negotiations lasted that long. It's a treaty, JCPOA is a treaty. But the president negotiated it as a United Nations resolution. Treaties have to be approved by the Senate, it's right there in the whatcha call Constitution. U.N. resolutions don't. Oh! Congress, gotcha again! Whether you're for or against it (and I have been both :( ), that was a brilliant tactical move. The thing stood no chance in the Senate as a treaty. Now, the Senate did get some say over JCPOA, my recollection, maybe faulty, is that Obama negotiated that with the Senate, but the Senate did not get the up or down vote they would have had, and hearings, hearing after hearing after... in voting on a treaty, they got, however they got it, only a "down" vote--that was subject to being overridden by a presidential veto. Opposing senators had to get 60 votes against to have practical say. And, before even the twittersphere could bash it, the P5+1+EU+Iran+IAEA+...Everybody was involved in those negotiations except Israel...submitted it lickedy-splitsky to the UN for ratification. Which was done. "Congress, looky here: You don't get an up or down vote only a down, sorry, go hold your breath, I get to veto any down vote, you don't have 60 votes to override my veto? jeez, SUCKS to be you, and oh, by the way, if you had gotten those 60 votes JCPOA went into effect anyway as UNSCR 2231, it just wouldn't have had U.S. approval so basically I win you lose now you get a big bruise."
Obama has not lost energy, he has not lost interest and he has not lost time. In his second term, he is acting. He is doing what he can do as chief executive without involving Congress and he is showing that he can do a lot. Alone.
