[achievingApathy]

He had already exercised his power as Commander in Chief by sending troops into combat. He didn't have to wait for it to become militarily necessarily -- the Constitution gives the President wide berth in this regard. It was reigned in with the War Powers Act in 1973. I'm not sure he was much of a strict Constitutional kinda guy either, as the Founding Fathers made allowances for states to secede, or reject the Union in whole. New York made sure they could back out of the federal government at any time before ratifying.