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Ericka Andersen | February 18, 2009 1:18 PM

"Sunlight before signing" seems to be a legend. President Obama broke his promise to post laws to the White House Web site for five days in January, just weeks into his presidency. That was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Then, it was signing an update to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Byron York smartly notes:

He signs nonemergency legislation in the blink of an eye. And he lets emergency legislation sit for days before lifting his pen.
Obama’s delay in signing the stimulus is particularly ironic in light of the fact that Republicans had begged that the public be given more time to learn what was in the $787 billion bill — before it was passed.

If you do things in the wrong order, will it confuse people enough that they won't ask what's going on? No. And there's more. Politico's Josh Gerstein reported that Obama was able to "shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire" and all without any mention from the White House Press Corps.

Apparently, these changes were never announced or placed on the White House website. According to the White House website, the "Sunlight" policy "will be implemented in full soon" but for now, they are "working through implementation procedures..." Why make something more difficult than it is? We get five days to review before signing. That's transparency the way Obama defined it yet he's not sticking to his own campaign promises.