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> Should he do nothing good or positive, so that you don't suspect him of manipulating people? I mean, the crime, conviction, sentencing, and multiple suicide

by hawkice 10y ago

> Should he do nothing good or positive, so that you don't suspect him of manipulating people? I mean, the crime, conviction, sentencing, and multiple suicide attempts all happened while Obama had the power to commute the sentence. If there was a principle at play here, if Obama thought it was a moral good to have this person avoid a prison sentence, I'm having a hard time imagining what the roadblock was. Was it that the massive leak and subsequent prosecution didn't get enough media coverage, so he was unaware of the situation? No, that doesn't sound right, it was widely known at every stage in the process. If commuting someone sends a message, the delay sends a message too. Perhaps he's just trying to do the right thing when the consequences won't hurt him. Perhaps it's all for show. But I think it's fair to conclusively rule out the theory about this decision being made in order to maximize the welfare of Manning. Something else was in the calculus here.

the_duke 10y ago
If he did it during the campaining, which was basically the last 18 months, the Republicans would have been all over it. Not that I'm praising him, he's been terrible wrt surveilance and transparency.
kbenson 10y ago
> if Obama thought it was a moral good to have this person avoid a prison sentence What if he thought it was good to avoid too long of a sentence? One possible interpretation is that he wanted punishment because it was against the law and as a deterrence, but didn't want to be too harsh. Sentencing isn't within his control, but commuting a sentence is. > If commuting someone sends a message, the delay sends a message too. Sure, everything sends a message, but not every message is intentional. It's undisputable that these actions send messages, but impossible to know for sure what the reasoning was and what messages were intentional and what were byproducts. The traditional time for a president to commute and pardon is at the end of their presidency, so reading a purposeful message into the delay may or may not be useful.

by hawkice 10y ago

the_duke 10y ago

If he did it during the campaining, which was basically the last 18 months, the Republicans would have been all over it. Not that I'm praising him, he's been terrible wrt surveilance and transparency.

kbenson 10y ago

> if Obama thought it was a moral good to have this person avoid a prison sentence What if he thought it was good to avoid too long of a sentence? One possible interpretation is that he wanted punishment because it was against the law and as a deterrence, but didn't want to be too harsh. Sentencing isn't within his control, but commuting a sentence is. > If commuting someone sends a message, the delay sends a message too. Sure, everything sends a message, but not every message is intentional. It's undisputable that these actions send messages, but impossible to know for sure what the reasoning was and what messages were intentional and what were byproducts. The traditional time for a president to commute and pardon is at the end of their presidency, so reading a purposeful message into the delay may or may not be useful.