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Biden promised no jail time for weed. He's running out of time to pardon cannabis convicts. (www.usatoday.com)

submitted 2 months ago by verdantbanana@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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With the president's decision to drop out of the race, he has effectively begun a longer lame-duck period, which is historically when most presidential clemency grants have occurred.

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[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 92 points 2 months ago

Not so sure it's correct to say he's already in the "lame duck" phase the article mentions where most presidents stuff their clemency grants. It might be true in a literal sense, but public perception is presumably the main reason presidents wait until that period for this sort of thing, and I'm sure he's still very conscious of how his own PR could affect Harris's campaign.

[-] ccunning@lemmy.world 52 points 2 months ago

By the article’s logic, every president elected to a second term has entered their lame duck phase the day after the election.

[-] unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov 16 points 2 months ago

Yes, this is not uncommon in US politics.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

In U.S. politics, the period between (presidential and congressional) elections in November and the inauguration of officials early in the following year is commonly called the "lame-duck period".

A president elected to a second term is sometimes seen as a lame duck from early in the second term, since term limits prevent them from contesting re-election four years later. However, not personally having to face the electorate again makes a second-term president more powerful than they were in their first term as they are thus freer to take politically unpopular actions. However, this comes with caveats; as the de facto leader of their political party, the president's actions affect how the party performs in the midterm elections two years into the second term, and, to some extent, the success of that party's nominee in the next presidential election four years in the future. For these reasons, it can be argued that a president in their second term is not a lame duck at all.

So while you're right that the assertion the author is making is misguided, it's a fallacy that is made often enough that some might conflate it with reality.

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this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024

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