# Obama passing the ball to Congress for now - predictions?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-passing-the-ball-to-congress-for-now-predictions/667710>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 1, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-passing-the-ball-to-congress-for-now-predictions/667710 "2013-09-01T03:42:13Z")\
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**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-passing-the-ball-to-congress-for-now-predictions/667710/1 "2013-09-01T03:42:13Z")

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There is an interesting political situation here now with Obama’s request for Congress to approve the action (let’s put the wisdom of attack on Syria and military/foreign policy consequences aside for now, and just look at domestic politics)

1. If Congress approves it (Senate and House together, remember), Obama can bomb, however futilely, and it still would be a huge bump for him and his political standing. “The nation united behind me” kind of thing. He will definitely be able to translate that into further advantages on upcoming political fights.

2. If Congress votes it down and Obama backs off from his “bomb, bomb, bomb Syria” plan, Obama loses, politically, quite a bit. He laid the foundation by pushing the attack very strongly prior to throwing it to Congress, and will look extremely weak (kinda like Cameron does now) afterwards. Does not bode well for the rest of his term.

3. If Congress votes it down and Obama still orders an attack on Syria, I think all hell breaks loose. I would expect a vote on articles of impeachment in the House, probably passing, then the spectacle of impeachment proceedings in the Senate. An enormous distraction - again, would not bode well for the rest of his term.

Again, if only political considerations were taken into account, I really don’t see how Republicans can justify voting for the attack - either in the House or in the Senate. When the opponent sets himself up for a huge hit, you oblige.

So - if the Congress (especially the House) does vote for the attack, that would mean that a very significant number of Republicans that voted for the resolution would have been acting out of higher motives than just political considerations. And since the “rebel” side in Syria is so distasteful that helping them would probably not be a consideration, such “higher” purpose would be something more philosophical or ethical. Hmmm. I just don’t see it happening. But maybe I’m wrong.

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