ABSTRACT
Yes we can was the campaign message Barack Obama rode to electoral victory in 2008. But it could have just as easily served to describe his governing strategy once he took the reins of the presidency. Like his immediate predecessors, President Obama asserted unilateral powers, early and often. In the first week alone, he issued executive orders effecting change to a wide spectrum of domestic and international policies. The new president further cemented his power within the White House by appointing several policy czars who would administer and shape key priorities of his agenda, such as health care, energy and environment, and economic policy. Although the president set out to bring about policy change from the previous administration, he would do so with the same inclination toward unilateralism.1 It seems that the assertive style of executive unilateralism characteristic of recent presidencies is here to stay (Barilleaux and Kelley 2010).
