2009.03.03
Track Obama's promises
Back during the presidential campaign last year, the Web site PolitiFact (a project of the Saint Petersburg Times) did an admirable job of keeping the candidates honest. OK, maybe it didn't keep them honest, but at least it helped Americans sort truth from lies.
Just because the election is over and the new president is in office doesn't mean the politicians have stopped lying. The site continues to analyze public statements.
It also is tracking whether President Obama keeps 510 promises he made on the campaign trail. So far, he hasn't taken action one way or the other on most of them, but some are already fulfilled, broken, compromised, stalled or in the works.
For example, he broke his promise to allow five days of public comment on bills before signing them. Meanwhile, he fulfilled his promise to ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees. (Check out all the rest by clicking on the graphic above.)
I'm glad to see that they remain vigilant. They need to update their theme song, though.
RSS feed 
typical
Comment by pammala — March 3, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
I'm going to bookmark the site and I hope they keep up with the tracking. Do you know if they have done this with any previous President? I'd be very interested to get a comparison if so. Regardless, this is certainly a neat, real-time way of tracking a politican on their campaign trail promises. My thinking had always been that a typical politician might only keep about 30-40% of their promises either by completing honoring it or working to obtain a compromise deal, with the remainder of the time just ignoring or not fulfulling the promise for whatever reason. Maybe this will shed some light on DC, in a different kind of way.
Comment by Other John — March 3, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
Since when is BHO a politician? I was under the impression he campaigned as not being one and not being a Washington insider?
The BIGGER question is whether the liberal press will hound dog BHO when he breaks a promise the way they do conservative candidates. Or will we see softball questions like we saw in the first press conference when BHO was asked "what are you going to do about it?" and his answer was that "we can't do what has been done the last 8 years?". The press let that answer stand.
I thought the campaign was over and he was elected already? I guess I must have missed something......
Comment by BobH — March 3, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
No earmarks..gone
won't raise taxes in a recession..gone
In his campaign, Obama portrayed himself as a centrist. The media bought it hook line and sinker and failed to scrutinize his liberal past. Now we have the massive spending, more growth in government, tax increases. Yes this is NEW this is CHANGE..if you don't remember the 60s and 70s.
Comment by BUD — March 3, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
OJ, to the best of my knowledge, politfact as only been around for a couple of years. So no, they haven't subjected previous administrations to this sort of scrutiny.
Comment by c. trejbal — March 3, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
Ok thanks C, it would have been interesting to look back on Bush's terms the same way. Hopefully, this will be something that is continued for future administrations as well.
Comment by Other John — March 3, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
Obama has sold our children's earnings away to prop up uncompetitive business and delay rebuilding a solid economic future. That is definitely different from the last 8 years. Socialist policies, corruption politicians, and government expansion is the cornerstone of this administration. It's precisely my fear of Obama instituting his campaign promises that worries me.
Comment by Jim — March 4, 2009 @ 11:01 am
I still look to Bush as the beginning of the now current mess, at least in terms of how it's being handled. He passed TARP, which was the first pillar of propping up businesses that should have been let to fail for poor management. Now, because that first step was taken, it's snowballing from banking to insurance, autos, and other industries. Considering how over-dependent our economic growth had been on credit and debt-financed consumer spending, we need some companies to close, people to be out of jobs, and for spending to come into line with incomes to re-set things in a healthy and stable fashion. Painful, definitely...but necessary if we're going to have any hopes of re-gaining sound economic stability that isn't build on debt and credit.
Comment by Other John — March 4, 2009 @ 11:20 am
"He passed TARP,"
OJ,
How did he do that without involving Congress?
Comment by Henry — March 4, 2009 @ 11:29 am
"corruption politicians, and government expansion is the cornerstone of this administration" Well yes, but Jim that was true of Bush as well so it is only the 'socialism' you see that really is bothering you now?
Comment by Sandi Saunders — March 4, 2009 @ 11:35 am
He signed off on it, and he had the authority and ability to veto the bill, but didn't. Congress may have been able to override the veto, but he could have taken an anti-government intervention stand, but didn't. The people who opposed TARP then are perfectly justified in their opposition to current administration expansions of bailouts, they are being consistent. The people who were silent when TARP was passed into law by Bush, but are vocally opposing Obama have no leg to stand on.
Comment by Other John — March 4, 2009 @ 11:40 am
Uh-oh. Looks like the country is having a little election remorse: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
And the reasons why...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/obama_the_great_divider.html
Comment by Jim — March 4, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
With people like Mr. Hanson in addition to talk radio and the disgruntled opposition slashing at you with razors, willing to destroy America to destroy you, I would say that his approval rating is more than a little remarkable. We were sure called a lot of unkind names, not the least of which was unpatriotic for questioning the Bush administration, so what, besides not patriots, are we to call these new voices of dissent? Facing adversity is not new to President Obama, the American people, or America herself. It may well be new to some rich people who are pulling their cash out of the economy helping the failure they seek. We can do this, Yes We Can! Sit on the sidelines and watch "the Little Red Hen" 'git 'r done'. While accepting your fair share of the bread, of course.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — March 4, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
Another thought I had related to what I mentioned earlier, the American standard of living has largely been built through a multitude of factors, but several of them are likely to change with this current economy and will likely result in a much reduced standard of living when all is said and done. In many situations, families funded their lifestyles through credit and debt financing like I mentioned, with little regard to saving for the future or even for a rainy day. It sure made for a great appearance...having the new house, shiny car, big screen TV, and the like, but did nothing to help the long-term stability or solvency of those families. In cases where multiple income sources were needed to fund those lifestyles, they are in peril now with the job losses and subsequent loss of income, which when added to the lack of savings and amount of debt-driven spending to create the lifestyles, was a recipe for disaster if/when the economy turned, which it now has. I really feel that in order to emerge on the other side with economic stability for the country and families within it, we are going to have to completely re-evaluate what we see as an ideal lifestyle. I do not see the future of the country being placed in constructing large homes and McMansions and being financed with gimmicky loans to make monthly payments affordable but that do nothing to help establish equity or to pay off the loan principle, it will not be built on credit-driven consumer spending on all the latest gadgets and techno-gizmos, it will not be built on buying a new car every 3-4 years, nor will it be built on having both parents (in the remaining 2-parent households) both working jobs in order to keep up on the multitude of debt payments in order to “keep up with the Jones’.” Rather, I see a major contraction in spending and lifestyles. I foresee people buying smaller, more affordable homes, driving their cars for several years longer and downgrading on the purchase price and looking at functionality more than comfort, reducing consumer spending on non-essential items in order to maintain savings rates and to pay off existing debts without adding new debts in their place, and a general trend back to figuring out how to live on a lower income or a single income source rather than multiple income sources. Like I said, I do think this process will be painful, especially since most of the growth in the last couple of decades was fueled by cheap money, cheap energy, cheap goods, and an overabundance of available credit. But, things will reset and eventually we will adapt to the new reality as it takes shape. People that position themselves now will be in a far better position for the future, while people that are simply trying to ride out this current downturn before resuming their previous activities will wind up ill prepared for the future, in my opinion. I do not see things getting any cheaper in the near term, and long-term things are only likely to get more expensive in terms of housing, energy, transportation, and commodity goods. People who continue to finance themselves to their eyeballs will be ill-equipped to cope with those changes and we could very well find ourselves in a new economic downturn when that comes to pass, all because people don’t learn the lesson today and make changes for tomorrow.
Comment by Other John — March 4, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
"...are we to call these new voices of dissent?" - Sandi
Hmm, i thought that poll was about the approval of the job the people thought Obama was going to be able to do versus the job Obama is now doing?? Everyone should take this as a warning... there are obviously people out there that will label you as a dissenter if you do not give a favorable OPINION of the job Obama is doing.
Comment by Marked Man (Mark) — March 4, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
I've already been called unpatriotic because I don't want to pay more taxes....
Comment by Danny — March 4, 2009 @ 3:12 pm
I've been called a capitalist because I believe we should get to keep our money that we work hard for, or thats how it was explained to me anyway.
Comment by Marked Man (Mark) — March 4, 2009 @ 3:23 pm