Nice list, seems progressives will make their own law to get their own way....

Prior to Lincoln, executive orders were pretty rare, only 143 by all presidents before Lincoln. After Lincoln used his position to ignore the Bill of Rights it became much more frequent. In the 20th century presidents completely forgot their place as servants of the republic and started acting like they were chosen by God to make sure that the POTUS was the most powerful person in the universe.
Theodore Roosevelt 1,081
William H. Taft 724
Woodrow Wilson 1,803
Warren Harding 522
Calvin Coolidge 1,203
Herbert Hoover 968
Franklin Roosevelt 3,721
Harry S. Truman 907
Dwight Eisenhower 484
John F. Kennedy 214
Lyndon B. Johnson 325
Richard Nixon 346
Gerald R. Ford 169
Jimmy Carter 320
Ronald Reagan 381
George Bush 166
Bill Clinton 364
George W. Bush 291
Barack Obama 227

Source:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/o...
In my opinion, every one of them violated the constitution repeatedly and deserved prosecution.

I am not an expert on it, but I thought President Obama was the worst about it, not because he's bad, but because every president takes it a little farther.

It would be nice for people running now to promise to set a precedent of less executive power. That's kind of tough sell-- if elected I not only will do less, but I will make the office the president less powerful.

Indeed, true, but it means the Legislative branch abrogates their own authority, handing it to the President, that should be deemed unconstitutional, as it violates the separation of powers defined there.

That is the real issue, a lot of the right is trying to sell themselves as the good guys and as I recall most R presidents did as much EO as the Obamanation.

"This year will not go by fast enough."
Whoever is president next (unless it's Rand Paul) will use these powers as precedent. What they do with them will be different. But they'll think they're the good guys and they have to use every tool at their disposal for their causes and constituents.

"We must recognize this period as the dangerous precedent it is and collectively -- through the legislative branch, judiciary branch and the public -- work to return the executive branch to the limited role the framers intended."

I completely agree with this article.

It seems a little unfair to focus on President Obama since this trend has been going for a long time, but he sort-of asked for it by promising to bring change and transparency to gov't.

There only a line or two about presumption of secrecy,

"Every new power seized by government is an individual freedom lost. As such, this pattern of executive abuse and overreach cannot continue."

This is so true, but I don't see it stopping. The executive branch has taken over the power to declare war, and the legislative branch is mostly okay with that b/c it lets them dodge blame for military actions that turn out unpopular.

Yep, except you have to fear the light at the end of tunnel, it could be "give me all your money" Bernie.

I agree it's a good summation and equally shocked it was posted on CNN. This year will not go by fast enough.