Laravel 4 password confirm doesn't seem to work how I expect it to - authentication

Question

I am basing my code off of a video on Laracasts.com. Here is the video. My idea is that I could use that validation method to create a user. When I try to confirm the passwords, it doesn't seem to match no matter what. My initial thought was that it is hashing the password prior to validation which causes it to return false no matter what.
Here's all of my code thus far.
Users Model
protected $fillable = ['username' ,'email', 'password'];
public static $rules = [
'username' => 'required',
'email' => 'required|email',
'password' => 'required|confirmed'
];
public function isValid()
{
$validation = Validator::make($this->attributes, static::$rules);
if ($validation->passes()) return true;
$this->errors = $validation->messages();
return false;
}
UsersController#Store
public function store()
{
$input = Input::all();
if (! $this->user->fill($input)->isValid())
{
return Redirect::back()->withInput()->withErrors($this->user->errors);
}
//if the user input is valid then save it and assign associated role
$this->user->save();
$this->user->assignRole(Input::get('role'));
return Redirect::to('/user')->with('flash_message', 'User added to the database!');
}
Create User View - Form
{{ Form::open(['role' => 'form', 'route' => 'user.store']) }}
<div class='form-group'>
{{ Form::label('username', 'First Name') }}
{{ Form::text('username', null, ['placeholder' => 'First Name', 'class' => 'form-control']) }}
</div>
<div class='form-group'>
{{ Form::label('email', 'Email') }}
{{ Form::text('email', null, ['placeholder' => 'Last Name', 'class' => 'form-control']) }}
</div>
<div class='form-group'>
{{ Form::label('role', 'Role') }}
{{ Form::select('role', $roles, "member", ['class' => 'form-control']) }}
</div>
<div class='form-group'>
{{ Form::label('password', 'Password') }}
{{ Form::password('password', ['placeholder' => 'Password', 'class' => 'form-control']) }}
</div>
<div class='form-group'>
{{ Form::label('password_confirmation', 'Password Confirm') }}
{{ Form::password('password_confirmation', ['placeholder' => 'Password Confirm', 'class' => 'form-control']) }}
</div>
<div class='form-group'>
{{ Form::submit('Create User', ['class' => 'btn btn-primary']) }}
</div>
{{ Form::close() }}

Answer 1

What's happening is that your password_confirmation field is always empty, no matter what you enter.
This is because you are using $this->user->fill($input) within the store method. However, in your model you have
protected $fillable = ['username' ,'email', 'password'];
So, this will never fill the password_confirmation field.
If you change the fillable to the following, you should have no problems
protected $fillable = ['username' ,'email', 'password', 'password_confirmation'];