Reply #58: Yes, he would have been breaking the law. [View All]

This is similar (but the inverse) of a lot of teacher responsibilities and authority. They have the responsibility to do achieve certain things but they don't have the authority to do it.

In this case, Obama had the responsibility to make sure that the treaty was properly implemented and enforced but he didn't have the authority. Since 1963 there have been various parties in power in one or both houses of Congress and in the WH, but the clock only really started ticking in 2007. That's when it became obvious that a bit of implementing legislation was needed.

House, Senate both (D). A year and a few months after it became obvious a chunk of legislation was necessary, the WH became (D).

Now that it's suddenly a big deal again, when people are playing specifically for a certain subgroup of the electorate, they'll take action. Perhaps 2007 and 2008 would have been a better time.