For those that have been paying attention this week, it is not hard to notice that Campaigner-in-Chief Obama’s speeches have taken on a spirited, combative tone. Perhaps at the urging of his advisors, Obama has dropped the hopey-changey lofted rhetoric in favor of finger-pointing, direct challenges to his dissenters and an emphatic confidence in his own abilities that borders on cockiness.

Take, for instance, the President’s speech on Monday in the White House Rose Garden in which he accused the Supreme Court of “judicial activism” by “unelected leaders” if they were to strike down his massive takeover of the American health care system. He then went on to call any actions taken by the U.S. Supreme Court that would result in the overturning of a federal law “unprecedented”. This rhetorical overstep by President Obama drew the ire of many, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said:

“Elected leaders have an obligation to protect our system of checks and balances. The President, more than anyone else, has an obligation to uphold the legitimacy of our judicial system. But his remarks on the Court reflect not only an attempt to influence the outcome, but a preview of Democrat attacks to come if they don’t get their way.

“Only someone who would browbeat the Court during the State of the Union, and whose administration stifled speech during the health care debate, would try to intimidate the Court while it’s deliberating one of the most consequential cases of our time. This president’s attempt to intimidate the Supreme Court falls well beyond distasteful politics; it demonstrates a fundamental lack of respect for our system of checks and balances.”

In addition to the outrage of elected officials, even the court system is appalled by the President’s apparent misunderstanding of judicial review and the standing precedence of the past 200 years of the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that the U.S. Department of Justice to “explain by Thursday whether the administration believes judges have the power to strike down a federal law.”

Says CBS News: “Overturning a law of course would not be unprecedented — since the Supreme Court since 1803 has asserted the power to strike down laws it interprets as unconstitutional. The three-judge appellate court appears to be asking the administration to admit that basic premise — despite the president’s remarks that implied the contrary. The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power.”

Remarkably, the President followed this errant misstep with a speech to the Associated Press on Tuesday that many feel is his most partisan rhetorical black hole of the 2012 campaign season. Focusing on the Republican budget plan rolled out in the House of Representatives this week, Obama delivered what was considered by Guy Benson, Editor of Townhall, as his “worst speech ever.” Continued Benson: “Today we witnessed something truly remarkable. Barack Obama managed to out-do himself by uncorking what very well may have been the most dishonest, demagogic, and bitterly partisan speech of his presidency.”

Despite failing to receive a single vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on his FY2013 Budget Proposal (it failed 414-0), President Obama instead focused on his partisan disagreements with the Republican plan. It is evident, then, that the President has no intention of running on his own record from his first term in the White House. Intently focused on widening the partisan divide in Washington, the Campaigner-in-Chief will continue to resort to cheap political gamesmanship, scare tactics and felonious rhetoric to persuade the voters of America to hold everyone accountable except for himself in November.

I can just see the Obama 2012 bumper stickers now: “Hey, it could always be worse!”