# How much damage could a crazy POTUS do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754 "2016-03-02T19:19:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/61 "2016-03-05T16:41:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I had never thought of it before, and now I have the Damocles Mayonnaise Jar to worry about. Thanks **dracoi**. Surely it would be a “Damocles Maple Syrup Can”? ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/62 "2016-03-05T18:21:16Z")
“In March 2004, the Justice Department under Ashcroft ruled that the Stellar Wind domestic intelligence program was illegal. The day after the ruling, Ashcroft became critically ill with acute pancreatitis. President Bush sent his White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. to Ashcroft’s hospital bed. They wanted him to sign a document reversing the Justice Department’s ruling. But the semi-conscious Ashcroft refused to sign; Acting Attorney General James Comey and Jack Goldsmith, head of the Office of Legal Counsel for DOJ, were there to back him up.[19]” It was even more dramatic than that. Cheney and Gonzales pressured Comey to change his mind and re-authorize Stellar Wind. Comey refused, so Cheney engineered a re-authorization document drafted by his counsel and signed by the president instead of the (acting) Attorney General. Comey, Goldsmith and most of the political appointees at Justice, as well as FBI director Robert Mueller, prepared to resign because they felt they were being asked to authorize and implement an illegal program. Bush knew none of this. On the day Comey and the others were going to resign, Condoleezza Rice realized something was brewing–though she didn’t know what it was exactly–and arranged a one on one meeting between Comey and Bush. Comey realized that Bush knew nothing about the substance of the disagreement over Stellar Wind, nor did he know that the resignations were coming. He explained his position and Bush agreed to change Stellar Wind so that it would conform with the law, as Comey and Goldsmith saw it. Keep in mind that this wasn’t a dispute about war or torture or assassinations or nuclear bombs. It was a legal argument about a surveillance program which wasn’t even discontinued, merely modified. Yet Comey and the others felt strongly enough that they were prepared to effectively cripple the Bush Administration. So if the president were acting crazy, I think someone would stop him. The story is well-known that in the last days of the Nixon presidency, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger started calling senior officers and telling them to check with him first if they got any strange orders from the President. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/63 "2016-03-05T19:07:07Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I had never thought of it before, and now I have the Damocles Mayonnaise Jar to worry about. Thanks **dracoi**. Glad I could spread a little good will and cheer. Still… I notice how quickly they deflected our attention to maple syrup. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/64 "2016-03-07T05:06:08Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > For nuke launches, the SecDef has to give the green light, IIRC. Two-man rule. Two-person. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/65 "2016-03-07T19:41:39Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > … > Keep in mind that this wasn’t a dispute about war or torture or assassinations or nuclear bombs. It was a legal argument about a surveillance program which wasn’t even discontinued, merely modified. Yet Comey and the others felt strongly enough that they were prepared to effectively cripple the Bush Administration. > > … And not only that, in the midst of terrorists-in-the-shrubs hysteria following 9/11, by members of the very administration that was doing the fighting, and as you say, over the legality of a surveillance program. generally, these guys take their work seriously, whether you agree with their policy direction or not. ---
**Author:** ![Phu\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Phu\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phu_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/66 "2016-03-09T18:10:26Z")
I don’t favor Trump as president, but I do like some of what he stands for. He would be head and shoulders above what we have now, oBAMA, (talk about crazy) or soon to be indicted Hillary or socialist Bernie. Trump is goofy, but he’s a long way from from crazy in comparison to the other three mentioned above. Democrats have been promising middle class people the same things for 40 years, college students and have yet to produce what they’ve promised. So don’t get your hopes up that what they’re promising now is actually going to come true this time either. You’re not going to get free college. If that was the case, why don’t we just give you a free house and Corvette, too? Where would it all stop? It’s easy to promise others something when Democrats do the promising with other peoples money. But sooner or later even other peoples money runs out. Sorry, that just the way it has always been. Phu Cat ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/67 "2016-03-09T18:20:19Z")
> [@Phu\_Cat](#): > > I don’t favor Trump as president, but I do like some of what he stands for. He would be head and shoulders above what we have now, oBAMA, (talk about crazy) or soon to be indicted Hillary or socialist Bernie. Trump is goofy, but he’s a long way from from crazy in comparison to the other three mentioned above. **Moderator Warning** You’ve already been warned several times for political jabs in GQ. Here’s another. One more post like this and you will find your posting privileges under discussion. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/68 "2016-03-09T23:38:49Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Because i don’t believe in crazy cabals and handily available assasins. Who would he ask? The CIA head? He could at his leisure remind the Prez that the CIA does not do domestic operations. And even if it could be pulled together, the CIA head himself would be wary and has to make illegal arrangements. > > Think about Watergate or the trouble Marion Barry got into. I don’t believe in crack squads available at a moments notice. BTW, how’s President Allende doing? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/69 "2016-03-10T00:02:00Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > BTW, how’s President Allende doing? \*After General Pinochet assumed power, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told President Richard Nixon that the U.S. “didn’t do it,” but “we helped them…created the conditions as great as possible.” (referring to the coup itself). Recent documents declassified under the Clinton administration’s Chile Declassification Project show that the United States government and the CIA sought to overthrow Allende in 1970 immediately before he took office \* Kind of defeating your own point arn’t you when it takes three years and the President was unaware? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/70 "2016-03-29T17:36:30Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > \*After General Pinochet assumed power, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told President Richard Nixon that the U.S. “didn’t do it,” but “we helped them…created the conditions as great as possible.” (referring to the coup itself). Recent documents declassified under the Clinton administration’s Chile Declassification Project show that the United States government and the CIA sought to overthrow Allende in 1970 immediately before he took office \* > > Kind of defeating your own point arn’t you when it takes three years and the President was unaware? Dunno; I’d need a cite, and a specific reference to a particular point. Also, wondering if Kissinger is the man to believe in re Allende’s demise. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/71 "2016-03-29T17:49:55Z")
Yeah, nothing in that quote indicates that the POTUS was unaware. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754/72 "2016-03-29T18:05:41Z")
No worries, our system has checks and balances. As long as the Congress isn’t also controlled by crazy loons with the same ideas, everything is fine… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-could-a-crazy-potus-do/747754.md?page=3)