“I taught constitutional law for ten years. I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that were facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all, and that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m President of the United States of America.”

What a difference six years makes.

The above video, released tonight by The Heritage Foundation, shows two different faces of Barack Obama when it comes to executive branch. In 2008, then-candidate Obama said that America’s “biggest problems” had to do with George Bush “trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch.”

Now the attempt to bring more power to the executive is something noble. Remember, when Obama promised to bypass Congress during the State of the Union, the Democrats of said Congress stood and cheered. In 2008, they were uniformly with candidate Obama in decrying Bush’s executive decisions. In an address at the Associated Press’ annual meeting in 2008, Hillary Clinton said that “the presidency is not royalty.” She added that the Constitution is “crafted carefully to prevent by election what our founders overthrew by revolution.” The press at the time was equally in step. Yet Obama’s far more brazen and blustery promises to bypass Congress are met with celebration.

So what do Democrats really mean by abuse of executive power? It would seem they mean Republicans using it. For President Obama, the sky is the limit.

(quote first spotted on @baseballcrank)