If Obama didn ' t approve of the blatantly unconstitutional mass surveillance in this country , why didn ' t he tell us about it ? Conservative justices will tell you it ' s not blatantly unconstitutional , and I have no idea with the Founders would say . I agree with you it is unconstitutional , for the record , because I believe in a right to privacy broader than that granted in the 18 th century when there wasn ' t a wire tap or surveillance state . But judging the Presidents by our founding documents is even more complex , as we ' re dealing with interpretations . I don ' t think anything you ' re saying really changes my point , though . We hold Obama to very high standards compared to other Presidents for some reason . Maybe that ' s a compliment , but it ' s also certainly a curse . I ' d use more of a KhrushchevStalin comparison myself .