Obama Distances Himself From Obama

Maybe there is a constitutional separation of powers after all. Barack Obama may be a totalitarian at heart, but the authors of the Constitution anticipated people like Obama and included protections. No, we are not Venezuela yet.

Obama on Monday claimed that the "unelected" Supreme Court would be taking "an unprecedented, extraordinary step" if it struck down health care reforms approved by Congress. Republicans fired back that the president was out of bounds trying to dictate and outcome to the court as it considers the constitutionality of the health care law.

And on Tuesday, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry E. Smith, appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, added to the uproar by questioning in open court what the president was suggesting, saying it "troubled a number of people who have read it as somehow a challenge to the federal courts or to their authority or to the appropriateness of the concept of judicial review."

Smith demanded that the Justice Department explain in three single-spaced pages why Obama believes the Supreme Court overturning the health care law would be "unprecedented."

In response, the White House is qualifying Obama's statements as "unremarkable" observations of the last eight decades of Supreme Court decisions that are limited only to matters of national economic importance, such as health care.