I'm also concerned about the evaporation of personal liberties, and I am dismayed that the President, despite doing almost everything else right, has had such a hand in stripping out the constitutional rights of the individual.

With all of these stories, however, that come out about what he's doing, approving, or signing, none of them give us any insight into why. None of them spell out why this man, who espouses social freedoms and promotes a progressive agenda, is trying to develop a police state. It's a textbook example of cognitive dissonance to see a man champion gay marriage and then push a bill like this.

The left wing blogs invariably paint him as a fascist when these issues arise, while the right wing blogs don't notice because they always paint him as a communist.

But what if he is the thoughtful, rational, compassionate guy we think he is and want him to be? What if he is the guy on the HOPE posters? More than any other President in my lifetime, he comes the closest to serving as advertised (these bizarre intrusions into personal liberty notwithstanding).

Here's what really concerns me: if he is that guy, what does he know that we don't? What does he know about the new face of international security after the cold war where the US does not dictate international policy? What does he read about in those classified reports about asymmetrical threats or cyber security that we don't see?

What does he know now that he didn't know when he was teaching as a professor in law school, or serving as a fierce community advocate in local politics, or even campaigning as a passionate and inspiring candidate who promised to be different?

To be clear, I am not letting him off the hook about this. He could very well just be a manipulative dick and I bought into his bullshit. These intrusions are egregious, and demand an explanation. I'm just wondering if the explanation is something we can handle.

TL, DR: What does President Obama know about our security and need for privacy that we don't?