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The FCC comes to decisions wholly independent of presidential involvement. It could, and would have told the president to pound sand if he did anything you suggested.
How can you possibly know that?
The president cannot order Wheeler to do anything, similarly to how he can write briefs and publicly advocate for supreme court justices to decide in his favor, yet cannot do anything concretely to make it so.
The President does not have the legal authority to force Wheeler to issue those regulations, but that is a completely separate issue from whether the President has the ability to heavily influence him, and how willing Wheeler is to follow the President's wishes. All that requires is the completely reasonable assumption that Wheeler is a loyal supporter of Obama. And that's not really much of an "assumption" at all....
Tom Wheeler, a well-regarded venture capitalist and former cable and wireless industry lobbyist, is the frontrunner to be the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, according to top telecom analysts and D.C. policy sources. Wheeler, who is currently managing director at D.C.-based firm Core Capital Partners, is a longtime Obama loyalist. During Obama’s first presidential campaign, he and his wife Carol spent six weeks in Iowa, where they worked the phones and knocked on doors for the candidate. Wheeler also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama’s two presidential campaigns, according to the Center For Responsive Politics.
http://business.time.com/2013/04/16...t-and-obama-loyalist-seen-as-fcc-frontrunner/
The idea that Wheeler is some non-partisan, middle of the road, completely independent guy who would tell Obama to "pound sand" if he indicated a preference for particular policies is naïve in the extreme.
And just to add, I'd be equally skeptical of a Republican claim that the President was not involved if a recent appointee who was a staunch supporter of that President issued a controversial regulation.
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