Apparently, the White House has forgotten the lesson of the Beer Summit and the fallout from Obama’s ignorance in his SCOTUS SOTU Scolding last year. That lesson should have been that the President should either wait to see the evidence and the law before opining on legal matters outside of his jurisdiction, or better yet, keep his mouth shut altogether. Valerie Jarrett tells George Stephanopoulos this morning that President Obama thinks the Illinois appellate court got it wrong, and that Rahm Emanuel should have been left on the ballot despite not having lived in Chicago for the required year:

Stephanopoulos: “Rahm left to run for mayor with the president’s blessing …Is it fair to assume then that the president did believe that Rahm is eligible and the appeals court is wrong?”

Valerie Jarrett: “I think that he believes that [Rahm is] eligible and I believe that he believes that Rahm will pursue his appeal in the courts. And as he said then, he thinks Rahm would make a terrific mayor.”

Why not just say that it’s a matter for the state of Illinois to determine? Why is that so difficult for this particular White House to manage? Contrary to their apparent belief, the President doesn’t get a say in state politics. If Obama wants to engage at that level, he never should have left the Illinois legislature.

Jarrett also previews the SOTU speech for tonight. When Stephanopoulos presses Jarrett on whether Obama will propose an actual spending cut, she replies that Obama will emphasize investment and the parallel elimination of ineffective and redundant programs. That sounds as though we’ll get a big dose of saccharine — and a hefty bill.