You are quite correct about Green Lantern theory of the presidency. The irony of this was that one of the major objections liberals rightly had of President Bush was his disdain for the rule of law. Mr. Bush did all sorts of things of questionable legality like his famous “signing statements” where he basically asserted that he could nullify any or all portions of law by the whim of his signature. Water-boarding, military tribunals, secret prisons, wiretapping, &c are all examples of Mr. Bush’s disdain for how government is supposed to work. Liberals and progressives castigated Mr. Bush for his curt and cursory dismal of the rule of law and justifiably so.

Now the same people want Mr. Obama to basically do the same thing. So of the things that they want are of course actually beyond all current human power at all. Everyone is demanding that he stop the leak at the formerly lateral but now horizontal Deepwater Horizon. That is, at least right now, beyond the powers of any human being, much less a lawyer and former senator. Beyond that, they want him to order EPA to order BP to do X, Y, and Z. The problem is that EPA’s authority ends at the 12 nautical mile limit of the US’s “territorial seas”. “The Law of the Sea” does not give the US, or any government, authority over the foreign ships at sea in time of peace (as Israel’s supports have discovered) and oil drilling platforms, in international waters, are technically ships. Now that might be something we want to fix in future but it is the reality at the moment.

The rule of law is something to be supported even at the expensive of people we support.