Friday, July 13, 2012

"An incumbent President running for reelection should not unleash his executive powers to hound his opponent with a criminal investigation. That is not preferable."

I agree with this:
An incumbent President running for reelection should not unleash his executive powers to hound his opponent with a criminal investigation. That is not preferable. There's no decent "put your money where your mouth is" argument for that. It's not his money, it's the authority of the United States government, and that must not be appropriated for political gain. Within the political arena, he can make whatever arguments he wants over any evidence that's out there about his opponent, and he incurs the risks that people will judge his arguments weak or even disgusting and dishonest. That's the process and it's working. Don't push the candidate into some other, abusive process!
Despite Glenn Kessler's fact-checking, I'm still not convinced this issue is settled, but the idea of the chief executive using the executive power to punish his opponents for the purposes his reelection is not a good look. The President has not considered such a move, and that is good.

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