Not only is the world a complicated place but the checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution place very real limitations on the powers of the president. Nonetheless, candidates often aver that, if elected, they will create changes that instead require congressional legislation. Examples of rhetorical overreach in presidential campaign speeches abound. President Barack Obama’s 2008 pledge to address the “planet in peril” faltered in his first term when the House passed “cap and trade” climate legislation but the Democrats lacked the votes to break a filibuster in the Senate. And had Mitt Romney been elected in 2012, he would not have been able to “repeal Obamacare” on day one unless the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and marshaled the votes in both to send such legislation to his desk.