There is a strain of defense of President Obama that truly baffles me -- I call it the "Presidents don't matter" defense. Matt Yglesias trots out perhaps the weirdest version of it yet:
Why Is Abortion Legal?
For the endless presidential power debate, I wonder how it is people think that abortion is still legal in the United States of America. Is its availability severely curtailed? Sure. Has the core holding of Roe v. Wade been substantially eroded? Obviously. Has illegal terrorist violence reduced the practical availability of abortions beyond what’s been done through the political process? Clearly. But still, we have over 800,000 abortions per year in the United States and we have over 200 abortions per 1,000 live births, each and every one of them legal. That’s despite Ronald Reagan and the big GOP gains in the 1980 election. It’s despite twelve years of Republican control of the White House. [. . .] My working hypothesis is that we have hundreds of thousands of legal abortions every year in the United States because major policy shifts are difficult to undertake.
Roe v. Wade, which was in fact a major policy shift of a Constitutional character, hangs by a thread given the current composition of the Supreme Court. It was a 7-2 vote in 1973. It still survives by a thread BECAUSE Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy. It still survives by a thread because George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter. It still survives by a thread because Bill Clinton won the election of 1992. These are all examples of how use of Presidential power on the issue was determinative.
Today, a "major policy shift" on this issue will not be as difficult to undertake. The next Presidential election could very well cause such a policy shift.
Indeed, for me, it is the best argument for why it is essential that President Obama be reelected. Presidential powerlessness on the issue of choice is, of course, an argument for why it would matter less who is elected. But the argument is wrong. And as a defense of the President, it is wrongheaded.