During president Obama's inauguration 2 days ago, I observed that he has 2 rows of pen laid out before him and for every sheet of paper he signed, he used a different pen (actually he signed about six sheets of papers with six different pens)
I have being wondering about this and finally decided to throw it open to the house. Did anybody know why he has to keep changing his pen?

Nothing new. He (lefty) also does it when signing bills from congress.

Thanks Steve for ur explanation.

^^^ That was no explanation

Time magazine ran an article on this quirky trait some time ago...

Actually, the President was just adhering to an obscure Washington tradition. The practice of using multiple pens to sign important legislation dates at least as far back as Franklin Roosevelt and is now one of our government's frivolous little quirks, much like that oversize gavel Nancy Pelosi carried around the other day.

The rationale is fairly simple. The pen used to sign historic legislation itself becomes a historical artifact. The more pens a President uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history. The White House often engraves the pens, which are then given as keepsakes to key proponents or supporters of the newly signed legislation. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he reportedly used more than 75 pens (video footage can be found here, although camera cutaways make it hard to keep track) and gave one of the first ones to Martin Luther King Jr. Senators Hubert Humphrey and Everett McKinley Dirksen also received pens for their aid in shuttling the bill through Congress. And in 1996, President Clinton gave the four pens he used to sign the Line-Item Veto bill — which allowed Presidents to veto individual sections of legislation rather than the entire thing — to those most likely to appreciate the bill's impact: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

But how does a President even sign his name with so many pens? Does he print it? Does his signature come out looking disconnected and wobbly? What if he runs out of letters? "I've been practicing signing my name slowly," President Obama joked in January 2009 when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — for which he used seven pens. President Kennedy had the process figured out: when he needed more letters, he wasted ink by spelling out his middle name and adding a flourish under his signature.

Mmmh,this is amusing. Just to give out pens as gift item!

Time magazine ran an article on this quirky trait some time ago...







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