Obama thinks "it is illegal and unwise for the President to disregard international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the United States Senate," but decided that "looking forward" was more important than investigating and prosecuting torture, a binding treaty requirement.

So long as others are in office, Obama regards the War Powers Resolution as binding law, and believes that "the President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." But legal and prudential standards, however genuinely praised, do not trump Obama's ad hoc judgment in situations like Libya, where he violated the War Powers Resolution.

And surveillance on Americans? Well, Obama "welcomes debate" on the tradeoffs between liberty and security -- except when Obama decides that significant legal interpretations and sweeping new policies should be kept secret, having already carefully balanced things himself. Debate is less important in the singular case in which the judgment of someone as wise as Obama can be substituted.

Do you see the similarity now? When it comes to doing whatever the hell one wants, or not doing it, due to legitimate constraints, Cheney's avowed preference and Obama's revealed preference are the same. In their own ways, they both subvert whatever it is that gets in their way. Obama thinks of himself as balancing lots of complicated factors -- and somehow it always comes out that he has to assume more power than he thought prudent when others were exercising it.

What a coincidence!

Cheney and Obama both had apologists encouraging this arrogance in them, though in different ways. Cheney's cheerleaders argued for a powerful presidency, testicle-crushing and all. Obama's arrogance has been bolstered more by the pundits insisting that his decisionmaking prowess is akin to Reinhold Niebuhr playing 12-dimensional chess against Wile E. Coyote.

He is so wise, thinking dimensions beyond the comprehension of his doubters! We're so lucky to have him!

In fact, many of Obama's decisions since taking office have been imprudent. His arrogant insistence on preserving his own ability to act as he pleases, in every circumstance, comes at a steep cost. Having maximized the prerogatives of the one man he trusts more than anyone on earth -- Barack Obama -- he's expanded the prerogatives of all the presidents who'll follow him, many of whom he won't trust. His shortsightedness has been irresponsible and discrediting.

Rather than correcting the "process" problems of the Bush years and the tendency to subvert the law, he has compounded them, and given them the veneer of bipartisan acceptance. Thanks to Obama, who had the chance to reverse it, Cheney's notion of the executive is winning. The U.S. desperately needs a leader who values institutions and law more than his or her own judgment. Or at least a Congress that isn't so impotent as to let the executive branch behave so arrogantly.