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Post 19 Jan 2011, 12:30 pm

Did any of those have a time limit on them? Some of those 'double' items could be seen as pledges over a full term, not for just the first two years.

Indeed, which are 'failed outright', which are 'not getting close' and which are 'not achieved yet but could be by Jan 2013'?
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Post 20 Jan 2011, 10:00 am

Most were failed outright, some could still come true but seeing as how none are even in the works it's unlikely.
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Post 20 Jan 2011, 12:49 pm

How many pledges have been kept? Isn't someone tracking all of them?
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Post 20 Jan 2011, 2:44 pm

Honestly, I don't really care. I expect them to be kept.
If you cheat on your wife, do you tell her about all of the other vows you kept and expect her to be forgiving of that one lie?
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Post 20 Jan 2011, 4:27 pm

Nope, but it would perhaps be interesting to see how many pledges were made, which ones have been kept and which haven't, and how important they are.

It's nothing new to see politicians break promises. They need to be held to account for them (you should see the problems that the Lib Dems are getting over here on tuition fees, having promised to abolish, or at least not increase them, and then voted to treble them).

Some pledges can't be kept, because reality changes. Some have to be. Such as, you may well keep a pledge to be faithful to your wife, but if you get laid off, how do you keep the promise to support her financially?
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Post 21 Jan 2011, 9:15 am

danivon wrote:Nope, but it would perhaps be interesting to see how many pledges were made, which ones have been kept and which haven't, and how important they are.


Well, it really depends on the site. Politifact has the Obameter which shows the following.

The Obameter Scorecard
Promise Kept - 134
Compromise - 41
Promise Broken - 34
Stalled - 74
In the Works - 221
Not yet rated - 2


However, another site at a place called progressive review gives him a 22% rating saying that he has made 30 good decisions out of 134.
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Post 21 Jan 2011, 9:26 am

For what it's worth, my impression: Presidential candidates, on average, are loose with their promise-making and not terribly worried about their failure to keep campaign promises. Obama was noticeably looser than average in the promising and has been slightly less embarrassed-looking about his failures to keep them. He was particularly irresponsible in setting deadlines for his promises; an unusual number seemed to be at the very top of his priority list, to be tackled "first" or "as soon as I'm in office..." or some such wording. At the time I attributed this to his naivety and his arrogance; he'd really not spent much time (it seemed) thinking about the Presidency in realistic or practical terms, and did seem unusually optimistic about his ability to personally effect change. I've seen nothing since that's forced me to alter those assessments. It didn't take too long for his arrogance to hit a wall, and he's just now getting his footing with the effective deployment of Presidential power. For a long time he was, given his situation, peculiarly weak and ineffective, yet uncompromising. But he's a smart guy and there are signs that he's learning and has adjusted goals and tactics, and learned an appropriate amount of humility. We might see a fairly productive Presidency over the next two to six years.
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Post 21 Jan 2011, 9:48 am

I can agree with most of that (but hope it's only two and not six years)
The thing I agreed with most and almost admire in an odd sort of way is his unembarrassed acceptance of broken promises, he shrugs them off like water off a duck. While I don't like that, I do admire it (again, in an odd sort of way). He went and immediately broke several promises from day one, it didn't faze him in the least! That could be good, that could be bad, while it shows ability to accept problems and shrug them off, it also shows a good deal of arrogance as well.

Most promises were obvious lies from the start, increase this program and that program 200%. Working with the other party, those were obvious. But some were just mind blowing like his promise to not use lobbiests, yet days if not hours after winning, in come lobbiest after loobiest (not just one or two). His promise to not pass any bills until they were publicly posted for so many days, that went by with his first (and all other? ...many at least) bills. That sort of thing really did bother me and didn't seem to bother liberals or even the media for the most part, just brazen, bold faced lies like that bother me about any politician and he had quite a few right out of the gate.