^{_{Please note that by playing this clip YouTube and Google will place a long term cookie on your computer.}}

Start the clip at 3:50 and prepare to be totally shocked.

When you suspend habeas corpus, which has been a principle — even before our country, it's the foundation of Anglo-American law — which says very simply that if the government grabs you, then you have the right to at least ask 'Why was I grabbed?' and say 'Maybe you've got the wrong person.' You know, the reason you have that safeguard is because we don't always have the right person. We don't always catch the right person. We may think this is Mohammed the terrorist — it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You may think it's Barack the bomb thrower, but it might be Barack the guy running for president.

So the point is, so the reason that you have this principle is not to be 'soft on terrorism'. It's because that's who we are. That's what we're protecting. Don't mock the Constitution. Don't make fun of it. Don't suggest that it's un-American to abide by what the Founding Fathers set up. It's done pretty well for over 200 years.

That was Senator Obama in 2008 on the campaign trail during his first of two successful presidential campaigns.

Barack Obama of 2008, I'd like to introduce you to Barack Obama of 2012, who authorizes assassination by flying robot of people whose names the United States government does not know, but who fit some kind of "terrorist signature" pattern. Obama of 2008 should also meet the Obama of 2012 who will not explain whether his drones got "the right person" when they exploded 16 year old American citizen Abdulrahman al Aulaqi in 2011, or give any explanation whatsoever for the due process-less killing of this child from Denver.

I don't think that these two gentlemen would get along very well. In fact I think the one in the video above would find today's President Obama to be a bit of a Constitution-mocker.

h/t Glenn Greenwald for the video