From here.
FFS, what’s wrong with a rubber stamp? Or an electronic signature? And why does “sign a bill into law” mean literally signing a document?
And why is it they can get their shit together about the goddamned Patriot Act and not get their shit together about the budget/deficit?
Autopen looks a lot nicer than a rubber stamp. That’s why famous people use them to sign their letters and autographs.
Skycorp?
Good lord - he may have used the autopen to create the long form birth certificate! New conspiracy theory!!!
Why not just a checkbox and button signifying that he’s read all 300+ pages of the Act and agrees to it? If it’s good enough for iTunes…
Because they actually have to read the budget. Nobody bothered to read the Patriot Act, because “now is [DEL]not[/DEL] never the time to question your government.”
Stranger
Why couldn’t they just have faxed it to him, have Obama sign it and fax it back? The actual bill is only 1 page. I’ve signed documents this way and they are considered legally signed. Or for for that matter, PDF it , email it to the President, have Obama print and sign it, scan it and email it back (I’ve also signed things this way). Since a signed original exists, what difference does it make how it was “presented” to the President?
Some sort of security issue, I’m guessing. Even with a low-level clearance like mine, people here are hesitant to deliver any signed inter-office document unless they do so in person.
well, yeah, if you’re delivering a inter-office document that is top secret, I suppose.
But this document is a law voted on by Congress and binding on all American citizens.
You don’t have to show a security clearance to read it.
If Obama was e-signing the DADT repeal, wouldn’t Republicans have cried foul and complained he didn’t really sign it?
No. What a bizarre, partisan swipe.
Why can’t people use words? What in hell is DADT?
Or, the passive-aggressive answer.
Just as a curiosity, would anyone raise a fuss that your President signed an American law in another country? 
Could anything be more insecure than this Autopen system? I sounds as though anyone with access to the machine could put the president’s signature on anything they wanted.
Ebay, here I come!
Yeah, I’m reminded of those identi-cards or whatever they were called from Hitchhiker’s Guide, where there were all sorts of security measures – tissue sampling, DNA analysis, fingerprinting, retina scanning and whatever else – which became too much of a hassle, so they just put all that data onto a card for the security systems to read.
In other words, if you have a machine to put a signature under a document, there is no point in putting a signature under a document.
OFFS. Of course some would. The leadership would not because they know it would be ridiculous, but low level teabaggers desperate to latch on to any conspiracy theory would embrace it wholeheartedly.
In fact, I’m surprised that some (not necessarily partisan) whackadoodle hasn’t already gone on about how Obama knows the legislation he signed is illegal, so he got around that by not actually signing it! Therefore if we just let everyone know this fact, the legislation will be rendered magically void!