Much has been made of President Obama’s considerable use of the pronoun
“I” on the night he announced to the nation the killing of Osama bin
Laden. As Mark Bowden notes in his recently published account of the
killing and the decision-making that led up to the operation, The Finish,
the president was not shy about putting himself front and center when
it came to the decision to proceed with the operation: “I directed Leon
Panetta … I was briefed … I met repeatedly with my national security
team … I determined … and authorized … Today at my direction.”
While a bit over the top when it comes to the “me” factor, nevertheless, the president is indeed commander in chief and, under the Constitution, with its unitary executive, he is, as the text of that document asserts, the sole holder of “the executive power.” Unlike many of the state constitutions of the time, the national executive authority was not divided among various state office holders nor as under the Articles of Confederation—the country’s first federal constitution—was it in the hands of the national assembly. So, whether critics of the president liked his rhetoric or not, whether they felt it was unseemly or not, it wasn’t out of bounds from a constitutional perspective.
While a bit over the top when it comes to the “me” factor, nevertheless, the president is indeed commander in chief and, under the Constitution, with its unitary executive, he is, as the text of that document asserts, the sole holder of “the executive power.” Unlike many of the state constitutions of the time, the national executive authority was not divided among various state office holders nor as under the Articles of Confederation—the country’s first federal constitution—was it in the hands of the national assembly. So, whether critics of the president liked his rhetoric or not, whether they felt it was unseemly or not, it wasn’t out of bounds from a constitutional perspective.
Now, the founders thought the “unitary executive”
was necessary because it provided two distinct but complementary
institutional qualities: decisiveness and responsibility. In times of
emergency, one man could act more quickly than many and one man, whose
decision it was to act, could be judged for that decision more clearly
by Congress and the nation than a muddle of decision makers. One only
has to remember the now iconic picture relayed around the nation and the
world the next day of the president, surrounded by aides, the vice
president and the secretary of state, intently watching the feed from an
overhead drone in the White House situation room as the operation
against bin Laden’s compound went down to understand the role the
president plays in such matters.
Of course, that was then.
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