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By James Pfiffner and Joshua Lee By James Pfiffner and Joshua Lee January 23 at 6:00 AM

As a candidate, President Trump said that he planned to cancelevery unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama. According to a briefing from then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence, immediately after the inaugural parade, the new president would go into the Oval Office with a stack ofpapers and start signing them to roll back Obamas executive actions. As of Jan. 21, the news media had reported the signing of only one such executive order (aside from some routine administrative actions), which affected the Affordable Care Act.

[Trump says hell cancel Obamas unconstitutional executive orders. Its not that easy.]

Presidential executive orders are a comparatively popular tool. If we tally them all from Harry Truman (1945-1953) up through Barack Obama, we get a total of 4,244. Different presidents, of course, leaned on them to different degrees: At the high end, Truman averaged 117 each year; Obamas average was a mere 35 .

Presidential candidates often promise to change policy with the stroke of a pen on day one of a new administration. Such rhetoric implies that a flurry of executive orders issued immediately after inauguration like the calendar leaves falling in an old movie could quickly reverse the previous presidents course.

But how often do presidents reverse executive orders especially in the first days of a new administration after a party turnover?

Heres how we checked.

We used the National ArchivesExecutive Orders Disposition Tables to determine how many executive orders were explicitly revoked or superseded by each of the 12 presidents who have served since Franklin D. Roosevelt. We counted reversals within newly elected presidents first 30 days in office. That count was quite low. Nine presidents reversed three or fewer in that time; Obama hit the high, reversing eight previous presidents executive orders within 30 days.

When we checked to see how many orders were reversed within a new administrations first 60 days, the numbers were still relatively low. Six presidents still reversed three or fewer. Gerald Ford took second place, reversing 17, while Ronald Reagan took top place, reversing 22 of his predecessors executive orders.

What about over their entire terms? There George W. Bush takes top place, reversing 64 executive orders. The rest reversed 52 or fewer. Their annual averages ranged widely. Bill Clinton reversed 5.5 per year; John F. Kennedy reversed 10.3. Richard Nixon, Ford and George W. Bush each averaged eight or more reversals annually. You can see the range of our data in the table below.

Note that these are not the number of executive orders issued by presidents, but rather the number of previous executive orders reversed by each president; some executive orders reverse more than one previous executive order.

Lets look at the totals.

Out of those 4,244 executive orders issued by Truman and presidents since, their White House successors reversed only 508, or about 12 percent of the total. Only 5percent of those reversals came during the first 30 days of their terms, and only 14 percent during the first 60 days.

[Every president is a minority leader. Trump will be, too.]

Wouldnt you think that when the White House changed parties when a Republican took over after a Democrat, or vice versa the new occupant would reverse more executive orders? Its not so. Interestingly, the annual average of reversals didnt differ much after party turnover transitions (7.8 percent) or party continuity transitions (7.1 percent). Nor do presidential reversals vary much by party: Republicans revoked roughly seven orders on average, Democrats eight. That may be because most executive orders are routine and administrative.

Only the rare executive order truly sets or changes policy and those keepchanging.

A few flip back and forth as presidents and the political climate changes.

For instance, in reaction to Nixons abuses of presidential power, Jimmy Carter replaced Nixons Executive Order 11652 on secrecy and classification by issuing his own Executive Order 12065, requiringmore open access to government policies and documents. His successor, Reagan, then reversed Carters order with his own (12356), tightening secrecy again. Clinton revoked Reagans order with Executive Order 12958, pushing the government back toward openness. George W. Bush then issued Executive Order 13233 to assert more presidential control over the release of governmental records. And shortly after his inauguration, Obama revoked the Bush order and later replaced it with his own approach to classification (EO 13526).

Theres more to executive power than executive orders.

Of course, as Andrew Rudalevige regularly writes here at TMC, many unilateral actions can be taken without issuing executive orders. Memoranda (previously letters) have the same legal authority as executive orders, although they are often not listed in the Federal Register, as is required for executive orders.

For instance, Reagans Mexico City Policy, which denied U.S. government funding for nongovernmental organizations that provided advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, was reversed and then reinstated in a series of memoranda by presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama. Trump will likely make another reversal.

In addition, presidents have other ways of changing the direction of government. Even without issuing a formal directive by executive order or memorandum, presidents can institute important policies by, for example, instructing agency heads to issue guidelines. This is how the Department of Homeland Security implemented Obamas instruction to carry out parts of the Dream Act without congressional approval, through guidances known as Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). DHS then prioritized the implementation of deportation of undocumented persons, later reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

[Congress wants to rein in presidential power. Will Trump sign on?]

But to sum up, the rhetoric of sweeping, day-one change is almost always belied by the reality of presidential life. It will be interesting to see whether Trump meant his promises to reverse Obama policies literally and will issue that flurry of executive orders or whether he meant it seriously, and will reach his goals through other means. Or perhaps changing the direction of the ship of state will be more difficult than he anticipated.

James P. Pfiffner is University Professor of Public Policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

Joshua Lee is a doctoral student in public policyat the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

Read more:
Trump pledged to reverse Obama's executive orders. Here's how well past presidents have fulfilled that pledge. - Washington Post

Michelle and I, we really have been milking this goodbye thing. So it behooves me to be very brief. You know, I have said before, and I will say again, that when we started on this journey, we did so with an abiding faith in the American people and their ability, our ability, to join together and change the country in ways that would make life better for our kids and our grandkids.

That change didn't happen from the top down, but it happened from the bottom up. It was met sometimes with skepticism and doubt. Some folks didn't think we could pull it off. There were those that felt that the institutions of power and privilege in this country were too deeply entrenched. And yet, all of you came together in small towns and big cities, a whole bunch of you really young, and you decided to believe and you knocked on doors and you made phone calls and you talked to your parents who didn't know how to pronounce Barack Obama. And you got to know each other.

And you went into communities that maybe you had never even thought about visiting and met people that on the surface seemed completely different than you -- didn't look like you or talk like you or watch the same TV programs as you. And yet, once you started talking to them, it turned out that you had something in common. And it grew and it built. And people took notice. And throughout, it was infused with a sense of hope.

As I said in 2004, it wasn't blind optimism that drove you to do all of this work. It wasn't naivet. It wasn't willful ignorance to all the challenges that America faces. It was hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. You proved the power of hope. And throughout this process, Michelle and I, we just have been your frontmen and women. We have been the face, sometimes the voice, out front on the TV screen or in front of the microphone, but this has never been about us. It has always been about you. And all the amazing things that happened over these last 10 years are really just a testament to you.

In the same way that when we talk about our amazing military and our men and women in uniform, the military is not a thing. It's a group of committed patriots willing to sacrifice everything on our behalf. It works only because of the people in it. As cool as the hardware is, and we have cool hardware, as cool as the machines and weapons and satellites are, ultimately it comes down to remarkable people. Some of them a lot closer to Malia's age than mine or Michelle's.

Well, the same is true for our democracy. Our democracy is not the buildings, not the monuments. It's you being willing to work to make things better and being willing to listen to each other and argue with each other and come together and knock on doors and make phone calls and treat people with respect. And that doesn't end. This is just ... this is just a little pit stop. This is not a period, this is a comma in the continuing story of building America. So, to all of you that have put your heart and soul, not just into the campaign but into making schools better, making sure our veterans got the care they needed, making sure that we left behind a planet that is safe and secure for our kids, making sure that hardworking people have a ladder of opportunity and can support families. For all of you, who have just done amazing remarkable work, most of it unheralded, most if without fanfare, most of it without you getting any word of thanks, we could not be prouder of you.

I could not be prouder of you. This has been the privilege of my life and, I know I speak for Michelle as well. And we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you, and I can't wait to see what you do next, and I promise I'll be right there with you. God bless you. Thank you everybody. Yes we did! Yes we can! God bless America!

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Obama's post-inauguration remarks: Full text - CNN

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. Most presidents begin their post-White House life by returning to their childhood homes or the places where they began their political careers.

Their arrivals often are marked by cheering crowds, speeches from local dignitaries and, in the vast majority of cases, the strains of a high school marching band.

Former president Barack Obama made a different choice. Hours after he witnessed President Trumps swearing in as the 45th commander in chief, Obama was on a plane circling the small airport here. His pending arrival was announced over the same static-filled loudspeaker used to inform weary travelers about flight delays and gate changes.

Attention, all airport personnel, the loudspeaker voice said, a ramp freeze is in effect.

A few hundred people in the airport terminal most of them returning home from golf or spa vacations edged toward the windows overlooking the tarmac where a convoy of black sport-utility vehicles was forming.

I heard he wanted to get some warm weather, a retiree on his way home to Canada said of the former president.

I heard he just wanted a good nights sleep, said a woman who had volunteered for Obamas campaign in 2008.

A former presidents return to private life is frequently a reflection of the man. Those first few hours as a citizen can offer an unvarnished and unscripted glimpse into his regrets, insecurities and hopes for the future.

Sometimes the welcome ceremonies are simple.

Hes homefolks to us, the mayor of Independence, Mo., told a cheering crowd as Harry S. Truman and his wife, Bess Truman, stepped off a train from Washington in 1953. Truman complained about all the unpacking he had to do.

Often they are melancholy a moment to reflect on elections lost and opportunities missed. A helicopter dropped Jimmy Carter on a muddy field in Plains, Ga., in 1981, where he was greeted first by his mother. He had been up for two days waiting for word that American hostages being held by Tehran had finally left Iranian airspace.

You gonna sleep at home? his mother asked in old video footage.

I hope so, Carter replied. I aint been to bed since Saturday night.

He wove his way through the crowds of people waiting in a cold rain on Main Street to see him. The manager of the local Sears presented him with a 200-piece tool set for his workshop. A band played Dixie.

In 2009, George W. Bush landed in Midland, Tex., where he had been raised in a three-bedroom rambler and where 20,000 people were eagerly awaiting his first words as a former president.

Popularity is as fleeting as the Texas wind, said Bush, who left office with two unpopular wars still raging and a dismal 22percent approval rating.

Im coming home with my head held high, he said.

Unlike most presidents, Obama is staying in Washington so that his youngest daughter can finish high school. He is unique among modern presidents for his peripatetic childhood and complicated family history. His father was from Kenya. He was raised by his sometimes-absent mother and grandparents in Hawaii and Indonesia.

He eventually adopted Chicago, his wifes home town, as his base.

Obamas tenuous roots, cool personality, and lack of friends and former colleagues seeking favors made him something of an enigma to some of his advisers. He may be the least sentimental guy Ive ever met, marveled one top aide from his first term.

[Obama: The loner president]

To Obama, this rootlessness was a virtue. He sought to build a political identity that transcended the countrys old racial, geographic and ethnic divisions. He was the first black U.S. president, but also called himself the first Pacific president, and spoke proudly of his Kansas and Scotch-Irish roots.

See, my grandparents, they came from the heartland, Obama said at last summers Democratic National Convention. Their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago.

Even as the country grew more angry and polarized during his presidency, Obama believed that his shape-shifting identity, and ability to empathize with Americans of all races and backgrounds, could help him bridge deepening divides. In his final news conference, he imagined a future in which there would be a female president, a Jewish president, a Hindu president.

Who knows what we are going to have, he said. I suspect well have a whole bunch of mixed-up presidents at some point that nobody really knows what to call them.

In the real world, Obamas plane was still circling the Palm Springs airport. Heavy clouds and rain had descended, making it too dangerous to land.

The airport was still on a security lockdown for his arrival, and travelers began to complain loudly about their late flights and missed connections.

Theres a Navy base nearby, said a man between handfuls of Fritos. Why dont they land there?

Dont you talk to me like that! a woman yelled at a ticket agent.

Courtenay Allen, a 52-year-old dentist, scanned the gray horizon for signs of the plane. There were rumors that the Obamas were looking to buy a place in Palm Springs.

This is not the kind of weather to convince him to buy, she said.

Said Vanessa Sievers, 28, who was waiting on a flight to Seattle: I wonder why he didnt go to Hawaii.

The two strangers talked about their families, the election and the prospects for the Trump presidency, which Sievers compared to the weather: stormy and cold.

They speculated about Obamas life after the White House. Would he still travel everywhere with a big security detail? Would he give speeches for money or devote himself to civic activism? Would he oppose Trump?

He must be so tired, Allen said.

The voice over the loudspeaker announced that the 90-minute ramp freeze had been lifted, and passengers began boarding their long-delayed flights. Obamas plane was being diverted to March Air Reserve Base, about 60miles away.

Presidents get to choose who will accompany them on the first journey of their post-presidential life. Ronald Reagan left the capital with his closest aides and 14journalists from major newspapers and television networks, who were invited along to document the trip. He and former first lady Nancy Reagan spent an hour chatting with the reporters as the plane headed toward California.

Shortly before touchdown, the reporters were invited into the main cabin for cake and champagne.

Sometimes a presidents departure can reveal barely masked ambitions. After eight tumultuous years in Washington, Bill and Hillary Clinton landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, where a rostrum with the slogan Putting People First was waiting on the tarmac.

The former first lady was a newly minted U.S. senator with her eyes on the White House; she thanked every Democratic politician and operative within earshot a list that included lawmakers, union representatives, the New York City public advocate and the local county chairman.

She then turned the microphone over to her husband.

Well do a lot of good things yet, the former president said.

As president, Obama had tried to make a virtue of his lack of attachments, casting himself as someone who would not be held captive by Washington and its focus on near-term political gain. His relationship with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress was frequently distant. His focus, he often said, was on the long game.

To his critics, Obama was detached and arrogant, unwilling to take part in the give and take of Washington politics. His supporters described him as a president who was determined to rise above Washingtons dysfunctional politics and make history.

As his time in the White House drew to a close, Obama became nostalgic, even sentimental. He reminisced about his two daughters growing up in the White House and worried about his imperiled legacy.

[Obamas Legacy A Washington Post special report]

He talked a lot about missing his team of aides and advisers.

Are you going to have reunions? Obama was asked in his last network interview.

Well, I dont think were going have T-shirts and all that stuff, he replied. That sounds kind of sad.

Obamas convoy of armored SUVs raced from the Air Force base through deserted and darkened streets to a gated resort near Palm Springs, where he would spend the first night of his post presidency. He was traveling with just six of his closest aides and two longtime friends from his days in Chicago.

On the sidewalk near the communitys guardhouse, a small group of cold and wet well- wishers stood vigil, hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president and first lady. The contingent consisted of a bank executive, a retired firefighter, a massage therapist, and a 14-year-old high school student and her mother, a manicurist.

Adriana Canizales had raced over with her mother as soon as her classes broke for the day. She was holding a bouquet of flowers. Her high school ID card hung from a lanyard around her neck.

She hoped that the flowers would persuade Obama to stop or at least roll down the window so that she could thank him.

Hours passed with no sign of the motorcade. Some people grew tired of waiting and drifted away. Others arrived.

Its such a bummer for there to be so few people, said a mother who came with her two children. Maybe hell understand that its California and its raining.

By 8 p.m., about 20 people were on the sidewalk.

I am visualizing him stopping and saying hello, the massage therapist said.

Adriana, who had now been waiting for more than five hours, nodded. She was imagining it, too. She was perched on the edge of the sidewalk when the flashing lights of Obamas motorcade came into view and the small crowd began to yell. Adriana jumped in the air and waved her flowers as the convoy, a flash of silver and black, sped past.

Obamas welcome had lasted a little less than three seconds.

Did anyone see the president? the bank executive called out.

Adriana was crying. I did, she said softly.

Was he smiling? the executive asked.

Of course, Adriana replied, sounding more confident.

The crowd spent the next 10minutes poring over their cellphone footage to see if anyone had snapped an image of Obama, but the evidence was inconclusive.

As people headed back toward their cars, Adriana walked over to the guard shack with her flowers.

Is there any way possible for you to get these to the Obama family? she asked.

She returned a few minutes later, still holding the bouquet.

Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

Continued here:
Obama's final ride into a wet, foggy California night - Washington Post

This new guy named Barack Obama was speaking forcefully, delivering one of his first speeches as an Illinois lawmaker with such eloquence that I turned up the volume on the squawk box that carried his voice from the Senate floor to my press room office one floor below.

Whos that? I asked the statehouse pundit who happened to be sitting on our dusty orange couch.

Barack Obama? Sounds like some kinda black militant, he said, and went back to gnawing on his soggy cigar.

The year was 1997, and the Illinois Capitol was a place where newcomers got their labels shortly after arrival. After politely asking a man in the office to stop calling me baby, I was the man hater. An intern with Mexican parents was that Chicano chick. Obama was the latest black radical, based first on his name and then on his interest in criminal justice.

The son of a Kenyan man and a white woman born in Kansas, Obama knew a little something about being categorized, and he had other plans.

For the next 20 years,from my perchcovering his career, I would watch people apply to him every label imaginable, from radical socialist to closet conservative, from nave preacher to scheming partisan, from angry African to black man in name only.

Mostly, though, he was a defier of the conventional ways of categorizing people in terms of race, color, creed and political beliefs. As he left office, he promised he wouldnt be the last black president, predicting that his successors would include a woman,a Latino and a Hindu and even more incisively, presidents whose heritage defy shorthand.

Obama was longing for such a world when I first met him. One of his first efforts in office was a bill to discourage racial profiling by police officers.

Isnt this pretty much a partisan vote? I asked him in the halls of the Capitol one day.

Not if I can help it, he answered. After he met againand again withpolice and lawmakers of every stripe, the bill went on to win support not just from Democrats and lawmakers from elite districts but also from white suburbanites and conservatives from outside the Chicago area. Itpassed without a single vote of opposition.

What got attention waswhites broad support. What Obama learned, though, was thatif he could make his case, he could get people on all sides ofan issue to come together.

When he preached that message at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, vaulting him to national recognition, it seemed from the response as if his fellow Democrats were willing to follow him to that promised land.

Whether they were right or wrong, it sure seemed like a good story. So I moved from Springfield, Ill., to Washington in 2006, when Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate,and soon after was assigned by the Chicago Tribune to follow Obamas historic candidacy for the White House. I wrote about his year-plus campaign and election, and eventually began writing about his presidency for all of the newspapers owned by the Tribunes parent company, including the Los Angeles Times.

Obamas passionate followers loved his vision of America as a land of opportunity for all, and he won the presidency partly because of how eloquently he challenged Americas dividing lines.

In office, Obama pushed back against established barriers. On foreign policy, that meant meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro. He plowed past Chinese government officials early skepticism of the women and black officials inhis delegation until he and President Xi Jinping had forged mutual respect. They eventually negotiateda landmark carbon-reduction agreement.

In domestic matters, Obama tried to explain white America to black America and vice versa. Often, the backlash was brutal. He infuriated white officers when he suggested, during his first summer in office, that policeacted stupidly in arresting a black Harvard professor suspected of breaking into what turned out to be his own home. Police and activists alike chafed at Obamas attempts to mediate during a memorial for dead police officers in Dallas last summer.

When Obama and Isat down together in the spring of 2015 at the annual dinner for the White House Correspondents Assn., during my term as the organizations president, I asked him why he waded into such knotty matterswhere people were unlikely to be moved.He looked at me with an almost confused smile, like he couldnt imagine what I was suggesting. One of his closest aides had his own theory in a private conversation we had shortly after.

He always thinks he can convince people, he said, if he can just get them to listen.

That didnt work out so well during the 2016 campaign for president. Obama exhorted Democrat Hillary Clintons sharedideals of equality and fairness and insisted her opponent, DonaldTrump, was unqualified for the job.The election ofTrump, promising an end to all the political correctness, came as a repudiation of Obamas core beliefs.

But there he was on Friday, leaving the Oval Office a final time,stumping for the same ideals. Just before he leftWashington for a retreat in Palm Springs, he addressed supporters in an airport hangar. Many were tearful.

Obama told them to keep working.

This is not a period, he said. This is a comma in the continuing story of building America.

Obama isnt done, as evidenced by the forward-looking spin of his parting words.

Yes we did, he said. Yes we can.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsons

ALSO:

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Obama, who hoped to sow peace, instead led the nation in war

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I reported on Obama longer than anyone else. Here's what I learned - Los Angeles Times

Forbes

Sorry Sean Spicer, Trump's Inauguration Garners 7 Million Fewer Viewers Than Obama's Forbes Using the same measurements, Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration drew 37.7 million viewers, which was the second biggest audience to Ronald Reagan's in 1981. The first Richard Nixon inauguration and Jimmy Carter's inauguration also garnered more ... Donald Trump Inauguration Draws 30.6 Million Viewers, Fewer Than Obama in 2009Variety Trump inaugural TV ratings lower than Obama, Reagan: reportThe Hill (blog) TV Ratings: Trump Inauguration Sinks 18 Percent From Obama's in 2009Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles Times -Bloomberg all 37 news articles »

Read the rest here:
Sorry Sean Spicer, Trump's Inauguration Garners 7 Million Fewer Viewers Than Obama's - Forbes