Does President Elect Obama already have certain powers even before taking the oath in January?

[NNN0LHI]

In his 60 Minutes interview last night when asked when he was going to close Guantanamo he said soon. Why didn't he say right after I take office? I got the feeling that Guantanamo was going to be closed before he is sworn in. Could that be? Can a President Elect have these kinds of powers already? Are they written? Unwritten?

Anyone else get the feeling Obama is already calling some of the shots here?

Don

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Like X-ray vision? Invisibility? Levitation?

:spank:

--p!

[GodlessBiker]

2. Yes. He can bend steel with his bare hands.

[dysfunctional press]

3. you mean besides x-ray vision and being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?

i dunno... :shrug:

[tridim]

7. Well, he did say he's from Krypton.

[DrDan]

4. my wife and I were discussing this the other day . . .

what would happen should something happen to Obama.

Does the VP-elect become the President-elect? Does the line-of-succession apply to those elected as well?

[TygrBright]

5. Yes. Biden would become Pres.-Elect. And after the conflagration...

...the period of martial law, the funerals of the thousands slain in the riots, etc., he might even get a crack at governing.

I pray a lot that nothing happens to President-Elect Obama.

anxiously,
Bright

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. Actually, right now, Obama is not really President-elect

He will be so when the Electoral College elects him.

[DrDan]

10. so until then - we (if I understand the SLATE's explanation)

would be dependent upon Congress to decide.

And so . . . Lieberman's vote would be critical. And we know where those loyaties lie.

[sl8]

12. I thought that, too ...

- I mean, we've only voted for electors so far - how could anyone be President-elect yet?

Then I found the following with a Google search:

http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_BASIC&contentId=24780

Presidential Transition Act of 1963
Public Law 88-277

...(c) The terms “President-elect” and “Vice-President-elect” as used in this Act shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the office of the President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained by the Administrator following the general elections held to determine the electors of the President and Vice-President in accordance with title 3, United States code, sections 1 and 2...

Now, just because the terms are defined that way for the purposes of that act doesn't necessarily mean that we have to accept that definition for general use. Absent another definition, though, the GSA's seems good enough for me.

[sl8]

13. Oops. Spoke too soon.

Just read Amar's article paper: http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/1995Presidents.pdf

In everyday expression, we refer to the winner of the
November election as the "President elect" even on Election Night, with the informal vesting moment
hovering between television network proclamations of victory, concession speeches by the opponent,
and the victory speech by the winner. But formally, under the Constitution, surely the victor is not the
"President elect" until -- at least -- the electoral college has met and voted.

Amar also brings up the question of whether we have a President elect before Congress counts the electoral votes.

Sorry, Freddie for jumping the gun.
Thanks, dmesg, for the Slate link.

[Recursion]

6. Slate's "Explainer" discussed this

http://www.slate.com/id/2201173/

The "milestone" dates are the general election, the meeting of the electoral college, and the certification of the election by Congress.

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. Faster than a speeding building. Able to leap tall bullets at a single bound.

Drawback: His magical powers are completely neutralized if he is exposed to cellulite.

[Igel]

11. No.

The president has powers, the Congress has powers, the Judiciary has powers. Even the VP has some powers, to preside over the Senate and cast a tie-breaking vote.

The president-elect has no official office, even once the votes are counted, and no official duties or powers until he's sworn in.

Whether he's calling the shots depends on how much the current office-holders defer to his wishes, and how loyal the troops are to current office holders or to Obama.

He might close Gitmo as soon as he's sworn in. However, he can't set the logistics in operation until he's sworn in--unless others comply with his wishes (since he has no authority to issue demands, just the possibility of threats if people don't disobey their current bosses in favor of him, something I personally, even in this situation, would find unethical). What logistics? Finding a new place for the inmates, for instance. Issuing orders and complying with chain of command issues. Arranging transportation, if nothing else. Again, from the outside, "Make the birdie sing, daddy" is an easy command to issue, but if you do it wrong all that happens is that the bird gets pissed off.

And you know he's going to sit back and think hard about some of the inmates. Some, after being released, have already gone and died in Iraq and elsewhere because of their activities. Some make no secret of it--and those intentions can hardly be credited to their having been kept there, since they made little secret of them *before* being incarcerated. For some, there's also little chance of convicting them in a civil court--rules of evidence might well rule out the relevant testimony. Set them free, and they kill one or more Americans, and you'd have a bit of a political problem.