President Obama, or Emperor Obama?

Jan 29, 2015 1 min read

To the editor:

It had been suggested that Executive Orders define a President’s “Emperor” status, and a quick check with the American Presidency Project (www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php) tells us that President Obama may be short of qualifications. However, he could use the precedence set by previous office holders to justify the issuance of additional EO’s.

Since World War II we’ve had several “Emperors” in the White House (listed in order of the average number of EO’s issued per year in office):

Truman117

Carter80

JFK75

Ford69

Johnson63

Nixon62

Eisenhower61

Reagan48

Clinton46

Bush#142

Bush#236

Obama33

To become a significant member of this “Empire” fraternity, President Obama needs to grow the number of EO’s issued during his last two years in office. Perhaps an ineffective Congress could provide some incentive.

Ron Lueth

Bokeelia