Looming Syria Vote Seen as Risk to Obama Agendas
By Lisa Lerer and Kathleen Hunter - Sep 9, 2013
President Barack Obama enters one of the most pivotal weeks of his presidency, as he makes a final push to persuade Congress and the American public to support air strikes against Syria.
With U.S. lawmakers increasingly lining up against the president, the looming congressional vote threatens to undermine Obama’s domestic agenda and weaken his clout internationally. Bashar al-Assad disputed U.S. allegations he used chemical weapons against civilians in an interview broadcast today with CBS News correspondent Charlie Rose.
A failure in Congress could reverberate through Obama’s second-term agenda, heightening the difficulty he’ll face in winning congressional support for domestic initiatives and hampering his foreign policy making during his final three years in office.
“The president’s asking a lot for Republicans to support him on Syria,” Tom Davis, a former Republican representative from Virginia who was head of his party’s campaign operation, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “To go back again on immigration or on the budget is going to be very tough.”
Foreign Leaders
Already, Obama’s inability to persuade foreign leaders at last week’s Group of 20 summit to back a military strike in response to a chemical weapons attack has left the administration with weak international support. While aides say the president has the authority to act without congressional approval, such action would isolate him domestically and could prompt a backlash from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-09/looming-syria-vote-seen-as-risk-to-obama-agendas.html
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