John Henke posts this video of Obama saying on the campaign trail that as president he would end George W. Bush’s practice of attaching “signing statements” to bills he was signing into law.
Obama, God love him, used his impressive rhetorical ability on the stump to make a rather dull and dry topic like signing statements seem particularly nefarious. He said at the campaign rally:
Barack Obama issued his first signing statement yesterday, but he attached a memorandum “intended to suggest a sharp break with President Bush’s practice-and a compliant media has largely adopted that line-but the reality is, appropriately, one of substantial continuity,” writes Ed Whelan at NRO’s Bench Memos blog. If you want to know just how extensive the continuity between Bush and Obama is, read Whelan’s entire post.
