I ran across something somewhere that noted the correct question to ask the "My president is always right" people: "So, if Bill Clinton had this power, he could have used it and it would have been OK with you." Or, even more cruelly: "So, if Hillary wins in 2008, do you want her to be able to do this?". If you won't trust one of them with it, you shouldn't be prepared to trust anyone else with it. (I wouldn't have trusted Bill with it, because the temptation to cut to the chase is there for all of them, whether I like them generally or not. I wouldn't trust Hillary with it either, for the same reason. So if I wouldn't let them have it [or Gore or Kerry, supposing they'd won], why would I want a man I didn't trust enough to vote for have the power?)
Our Founders set things up this way because they knew we couldn't count on the President (or anyone else in government) not to be crooked, foolish, or misled.

Civics 101--why do people in the military have a better grasp of it than the civilians?!??!

(BTW, my brother-in-law, the old navy officer, refers to North as MR North--because he should have been cashiered, instead of allowed to leave the service intact--if he hadn't resembled a war hero, and had Protection in High Places, he might have been.)