Here you can find some thoughts on the emerging evidence of the Obama administration's position on executive power (written with Curt Bradley). And below a bloggingheads segment with Jack Balkin (I am the barely sentient one of the two speakers, not yet recovered from a vacation). Do emergencies help presidents or hurt them? I say they hurt them. FDR was an exceptional case. The Caesar/Cromwell theory that presidents use emergencies to become dictators—and that fear of this phenomenon should be a part of our constitutional politics—should be interred in an eighteenth century tomb. Jack disagrees. He sees presidents "creating reality"; I see them being devoured by reality.