President Obama's address last night found Senator Ben Cardin pleased with his performance noting that Obama showed no signs of pushing for immediate action.
Cardin voted to for the resolution approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee authorizing military action.
Meanwhile, even before the President’s address his fellow Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski announced that she will support the President’s request to authorize air strikes against Syria.
During his address the President asked that a vote on authorization be delayed to give diplomatic efforts with Russian a chance to open up and eventually eliminate Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.
As of yesterday that brought the number of Senators for authorization to 24 with 28 against and 48 undecided according to a Washington Post count.
Meanwhile, Delaware Senator Chris Coons is working on a measure that would amend the resolution that came out of the Foreign Relations Committee.
As a member of the committee he voted for the resolution.
Working with a bipartisan group the measure would authorize military action only if the international diplomatic efforts fail.
His fellow Democratic Tom Carper issued a statement after a meeting with the President that he was encourages with Obama’s pursuit of a diplomatic initiative.
But he added diplomacy can only be effective if the U.S. maintains the threat of military action.
