Thanks, Greg and Wesley. If this were "American Law for Dummies", I would ask whether Obama was talking about things he could not influence (such as "Rain does not belong on garden parties, rain belongs on farmers' fields!") or announcing new Federal legislation, where his word does play a role ... but it seems that there may not be any explanation that sounds logical to me, let alone reasonable.

To be sure, most other countries have their own idiosyncrasies, incomprehensible to the rest of the world.

I always wonder why so many people shout "Our politicians are corrupt, and our system does not allow decent people to become elected!" - but so few shout "Let's change the system towards more democracy and justice!" This may be difficult to achieve, but shouting should be easy, and might help in the long run.