The Obama Promises

During the long presidential campaign candidates make many speeches and talk to a great many people. During these talks, interviews and speeches they also make commitments and promises of what they will do or plan to accomplish if elected. What would happen if someone kept track of all these promises and commitments and then published a scorecard on how the winning candidate was doing?

During the most recent campaign President Obama did indeed make a number of promises. According to sources, he made a total of 510 individual promises of what he would do, or attempt to do, if elected. Mister Obama recently became President Obama and the score keeping has begun. A website has published all 510 promises made by President Obama during the campaign and plans to track, and report on, his progress in keeping them.

Very early on, the new President had kept 5 of his promises, compromised on 1, 1 had stalled, 17 were in the works and no action had been taken on 486. It is still very early. By category, none of the 19 promises on the economy have been kept, nor have any of the 37 promises on taxes been kept. However 1 of the 9 promises concerning Iraq has been. It will be very interested to see how this progresses as President Obama settles into the Presidency.

The website also has some other neat features not only on President Obama but many other political figures as well. They have a section which shows the 'flip-flops' politicians have made. There is also a section of the "Pants-on-fire" for the really blatant errors and statements made. You can add a feed from the site to your website and keep up to date with many of the features. The site seems to be bi-partisan and points out errors made by politicians on both sides of the aisle.

If you are interested in seeing how our new President is doing, as well as other elected officials, you should check out www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/ It is an interesting site for novices and political junkies alike.