President Barack Obama has in the course of health care reform directly violated a stated principle of Senator Barack Obama.

On February 21, 2008, Senator Obama told the country that one of the biggest differences between him and Senator Clinton was her support for and his opposition to the individual mandate. Quoth:

We’ve got a philosophical difference, which we’ve debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don’t have it is not because they don’t want it but because they can’t afford it.

Indeed. Which is why today he signed into law legislation that levies new taxes, cuts Medicare funding, and forces everyone to purchase health insurance the government approves. Because he opposes forcing everyone to purchase health insurance the government approves.

As Jim Geraghty says, every Obama promise comes with an expiration date. Every promise.