Gene Healy on the Presidency (1 of 2)

Gene Healy discusses the Presidency at the Massachusetts School of Law in April, 2008. Healy is the author of The Cult of the Presidency, the new Cato Institute book that examines how Americans have expanded presidential power over recent decades by expecting solutions for all national problems, and concludes by calling for the presidents role to return to its properly defined constitutional limits. Healy also discusses the infamous John Yoo torture memos.

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News & Politics

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• healy
• cult
• of
• the
• presidency
• john
• yoo
• torture
• memos
• cato
• institute

[youneverheard]

@Calbeck Really? He comes off as well-studied and hilarious to me

[migkillertwo]

@Calbeck I sort of agree, but I think his point carries even if its just a poetic reference. Emboldening nationalist sentiment isn't part of the President's job either. The president has an extremely limited role, and that is defending the United States and enforcing the laws enacted by Congress.

[Calbeck]

This guy comes across as pretty bitter and snarky. Saying Roosevelt "nourished the soul of the nation" is a poetic reference...and this guy takes that as being a declaration of presidential powers.

Then he makes a "fat joke" about a guy who succeeded in losing enough weight that he isn't fat anymore.

Yeeeah...Healy kind of needs to get over himself.

[earthborg]

after you're elected, they show the kennedy assassination from an angle never seen before......any questions?

[earthborg]

The presidents job is to do what the corporatocracy says and sell it to the sheeple.

[k1awdttt]

I didn't know presidents have a real job... I've always thought they are just figure heads. Oh well.