“Later today President Obama will unveil his plan to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, through an expanded military campaign in Iraq and likely Syria. But by ordering the military into action without explicit congressional authorization, Obama is falling back, at least in part, on the same controversial legal theories of executive power that he once rejected.

Not everyone is surprised by the presidential about-face. John Yoo, a former Bush administration lawyer and one of the primary architects of the “strong executive” theory of presidential power, told BuzzFeed News, “Obama has adopted the same view of war powers as the Bush administration.”

In a preview of his speech on Sunday, Obama told Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet the Press that he was “confident that I have the authorization that I need to protect the American people.” Obama repeated that same line in meetings with foreign policy pundits on Monday and again in meetings with congressional leaders on Tuesday.”* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

*Read more here from Gregory D. Johnsen / Buzzfeed:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gregorydjohnsen/obama-will-fight-isis-with-george-w-bushs-legal-theories#feyb5y