In light of the recent attack in Paris we have seen Obama taking a stand against most of Congress including members of his own party.  Today the House of Representatives passed a bill that would stop Syrian refugees from coming into the country until national security agencies can certify refugees will not pose a threat.  This stance by Obama shows him taking on many different roles of the presidency.  He is trying to take on a legislative lead as he threatens to veto the bill and work with Democrats in the senate to block and kill the bill.  He is acting as a party leader, unsuccessfully, as he tries to get Democrats to follow his position of accepting refugees.  Finally one can argue this is as much a foreign policy decision as a domestic one, depending on how America responds and acts it will shape how people view us around the world.  With France saying they will accept 30,000 refugees this could be embarrassing for Obama as we were not even the ones attacked or directly affected by the attack.  The only nations devoted to openly accepting refugees into their borders in the Western world right now are Germany and France, with most other nations making it hard.  Obama’s actions will shape the way in which other world leaders will deal with us in response to the refugee and Syrian situation.  The problem is though we are seeing Obama loose his grip on the Democratic Party as 47 Democrats voted in favor of this bill to restrict the flow of refugees.  On top of that many governors have already stated they will not accept Syrian refugees at all or until a more intensive screening process is implemented.  This is another test for Obama as refugee relocation is a federal power.  He can easily ignore governors and put refugees in their states but he runs the risk of lowering his opinion polls and threatening the next democratic presidential candidate’s chance of being elected.  A very complicated human right crisis has arisen and now is the time to see if America will step up to the plate and respond accordingly to it.  The only problem is like most things in America there are two sides and they will fight forever until the problem ceases to exist and both sides claim they win.  Obama’s actions can help to steer the nation away from the fear that currently grasps it and hopefully he will be able to keep fighting until people come to their senses or the tides sway back to his view.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/politics/house-democrats-refugee-hearings-obama/