After four months of proposals, decisions, and public statements, it seems the president believes that the 2008 election — or more to the point, his election — represents a fundamental break from the previous 232 years of our history.  It’s as if he believes his victory in November was less like the election of previous presidents and more like 1789, when we ratified a new constitution.

But presidents don’t have powers aside from the Constitution.

What this president is doing with the automotive, insurance, banking, and mortgage lending industries is extra-constitutional and dangerous — dangerous specifically because it is extra-constitutional.

But what happens when Obama leaves office?  Do liberals really want a conservative Republican in charge of Wall Street and Detroit, to be the nation’s loan officer for college tuition or home mortgages? 

The Constitution, that’s what.  Or at least, that’s what should.