Sunday, January 25, 2009
Obameter
This should be fun. PolitiFact.com has an Obameter, where they will keep track of how many of Obama's over 500 campaign promises he has kept, which he hasn't, and which are still in the works. Of course, this is politics, which requires that compromises be made, so naturally I don't expect that he will be able to keep all of them. And I'm sure that his political foes will use a site like this to attack him for the ones that he's failed to fulfill. However, I think it will be a good way to simply keep track of what he is accomplishing, to see that real change is actually happening. (For instance, after being President for less than a week, Obama has already made good on 5 of his promises and is currently working on 14 more.)
I heard about this on CNN, and they pointed out that Obama actually has a lot more promises to fulfill than Bush or Clinton before him ever did. In fact, Obama made more than twice as many campaign promises than either of his two predecessors, which I think goes to show that those who claimed he was all style and no substance weren't really paying attention. Nonetheless, that's a lot to live up to. Of course, I've already heard conservatives remarking that they hope (for the good of the country) that he doesn't actually fulfill his promises (since they obviously don't like his positions). Of course, since, generally speaking, I no longer share their particular political bent, I do hope that Obama fulfills many of his promises (though of course there are those that I dislike as well.) At any rate, I'm glad there's a website out there that will help all of us keep track of what our elected officials are in fact doing on our behalf.
posted by Mike Clawson at 2:46 PM | Permalink | 
3 Comments:
I previously linked Amy Moffit's post-inaugural blog post on Julies blog. I agree with Amy's sentiments when she says:
"...I believe him capable of the office. But he can't do what he's saying he's going to do. Even as he tamps down people's expectations in his speeches, he's still having to balance it with promises he can't keep..."
It will be interesting to track that site - Obama could fail to deliver on a lot of those promises and still be a very effective leader.
http://moffou.blogspot.com/2009/01/inauguration-day-2009.html
I consider myself a liberal and don't care for quite a few of the promises either. :-)
Although interestingly enough, I'm in favor of 4 out of 5 of the fulfilled ones (I don't see the need for him to appoint a Republican; their party is intellectually bankrupt and needs to be put out of its misery so that a superior third party can take its place).
However, I think some of the conditions in various promises are contradictory and some are vague and open to interpretation by the site. It'll necessarily become a partisan rant for one side or the other (or both) depending on how they choose to classify his actions.
Where's Gitmo in the list, by the way? He said he'd "close" it on the first day and came through on that as well.
Anyway, I tend to care more about results than actions. Directing the military to leave Iraq on the first day is great, but it dims somewhat if we're still there two years from now.