Obama may truly turn out to be a sort of “anti-Lincoln”. That is, before Lincoln, states had more power than the Federal Government. It was the more mortar that held the bricks (states) together. But after the Civil war, the bricks were replaced with marbles and the extra space filled in with FedGov.
Obama seems to be turning us back, intentionally or not.
I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.
Just having the discussion is a good thing.