ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTITIES: Once Skeptical of Executive Power, Obama Has Come to Embrace It.

In nearly eight years in office, President Obama has sought to reshape the nation with a sweeping assertion of executive authority and a canon of regulations that have inserted the United States government more deeply into American life.

Once a presidential candidate with deep misgivings about executive power, Mr. Obama will leave the White House as one of the most prolific authors of major regulations in presidential history.

That was always the intention.