I ask all to take a step back and consider that statement. Recall the White House also helped coordinate Union opposition to Wisconsin state employee reforms a couple years ago.
What we are witnessing is a rapid consolidation, a gathering of political powers to the President. Obama enforces a top down authoritarian system with campaign money; the Senate has become his rubber-stamp, and the quote above shows that his powers reach down to State assemblymen. "Vote our way and cruise to reelection; oppose us and lose."
It is a complete reversal of the Framer's Constitution, a reversal of federalism, in which the Senate of the States played large roles in protecting both State interests and making our laws. Structure is everything. The Articles of Confederation were replaced with the Constitution not because the people of 1776 were less virtuous than those of 1787. They were replaced because they were detrimental to national safety and happiness.
With the 17th Amendment, the Framer's vertical separation of powers was removed and STRUCTURALLY made enforcement of enumerated powers and the Bill of Rights an impossibility. Absent State participation in the Senate, there is zero chance we will return to Constitutional freedoms.
Good points!