An Unprincipled Presidency
Two hot new news topics illustrate how willing the Obama Administration is to put politics over principle.
As unpopular as the AIG bonuses are, it is undeniable that their aggregate amount is relatively insignificant. However, because of all the popular buzz, and a decline in their popularity polls, D.C. Democrats are spinning out of control in an effort to claw back the bonuses, whether by sacrificing the concept of contract, a cornerstone of civilization, or by confiscatory taxation which is Constitutionally suspect at best. To make matters worse, these unprincipled efforts are being pursued not to recover the bucks which are minimal, but rather to divert public attention from the fact that the whole mess could have easily been avoided had Obama’s lieutenants (junior grade) performed their duties with a minimum degree of care.
Then, to appease the Teamsters, the Obama team is taking action relating to Mexican trucking in the United States which has minimal if no effect beneficial to the United States but which may well trigger significant retaliatory action by Mexico in terms of higher tariffs on American exports. Shades of the buy-America provisions, which were almost enacted and which would have had disastrous consequences to international trade.
The only principle our fledgling President seems to be capable of pursuing is to have the country borrow itself into a stupor and then spread it around according to need. He also has a disturbing tendency to respond to the wheel that is squeaking the loudest at a particular moment.

Salon.com
Comments
For starters, honesty, rule of law, living up to one's undertaken obligations, predictability as embodied in the constitutional principles of ex post facto, due process, bill of attainder, etc.) and protection of private physical, intangible, and intellectual property.
Other Obama "defenses" include the observation that TG works hard and, guess what?, inherited a big mess. It appears that Obama is having as much difficulty defending TG as OS liberals are having defending Obama.
I wonder if TG's sale of his New York digs is rescindable. If not he can always say, as some Dems in Congress are, in effect, saying, "What's a contract? Just a piece of paper."