The author is entirely correct about the president’s failure to build support in Congress. The president must either convince enough legislators to support his goals or compromise with the opposition to build a voting majority. It appears President Obama is incapable of doing either.
In regards to President Obama using executive orders, I don’t know all of the laws in question, but most laws are written with exceptions. Obamacare, for example, gives the executive branch very broad discretion to decide what’s covered. The president is walking a fine line to be sure, but I think some of these executive orders are within his authority under the law.
A person would have to study the particular law in question to see if it gives the president wiggle room. I blame Congress for writing overly broad laws. Consider the EPA. Congress probably never thought CO2 would be defined as a pollutant, but that’s all it took to give the chief executive the power to do all sorts of mischief, like regulating coal plants out of existence.
I should add that my post doesn’t concern the constitutionality of any of the proposed executive orders. That’s an entirely different matter, and all three branches of government are guilty of ignoring the constitution.