Wow. This is actually very big news. You're right, he'll need to walk this one back, even as Obama's MSM ignores it. It's a political ad for the NE states that can't be ignored.
maybe, maybe not. The democrats may see Obuttocks' primary value now as residing in his pen and his willingness to sidestep the rule of law using executive orders. Since Obama will not be impeached, short of him lending the USAF to Putin for strafing runs against Ukrainian troops, and since he won't need to curry any bipartisan favor with anyone since he'll be doing everything by executive order, and lastly because he cannot run for president again, and will most likely not seek any other political office, they can afford to have him be seen as a bit of a scapegoat right now.
Basically, since Obama doesn't need to persuade anyone else to go along with him in order for him to do what he's going to do, and since he can't be stopped, there is no harm done, as far as the democrats see it, if vulnerable party members are allowed to claim they reject some of his positions and actions.
Essentially, Obama has been such a disaster for the country that even democrats can effectively run against him in 2014 and 2016; which is just fine with Obuttocks because he's going to be doing everything via diktat (i.e., executive order).