Obama’s Long List Of Promises To Keep, Obligations To Meet
“Faced with economic collapse on the home-front and two wars overseas, the administration of President-elect Barack Obama is signaling loudly and clearly that a substantial number of his costly campaign promises will have to be postponed or abandoned altogether.”
Huffington post assembled a great, cited list of Obama’s many promises: Improve options for displaced workers / Help community and small business development agencies / Improve rural schools and availability of doctors / Help organic farmers and promote regional food systems / Give new farmers tax incentives / Provide farmers capital and help rural small businesses / Create rural revitalization program / Improve high school graduation rates / Double the number of high school students taking college level courses / Double charter school funding / Include more technology in public schools / Provide tuition assistance to students who perform community service / Recruit teachers and principals / Recruit science and technology teachers / Provide pay raises for teachers and principals / Pay tuition for students going into teaching / Increase Head Start and Early Start / etc. (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)
Me: Normally, I call politicians on broken promises, but not with these. Let’s hope Obama doesn’t keep these promises for a few reasons: 1) none of the federal government’s business 2) we can’t afford any more government programs 3) they’d further warp our already mutilated economy. If you want to help, say, a rural community, let the people, the communities, the states keep more of their own money. The central planners in Washington don’t know how to most efficiently spend money, the people do.
There are a few promises I’d like to see him keep: Ending the Iraq War, Tax cuts for the poor, Repealing the Patriot Act. Am I hopeful? Hell no. Obama is a new face on the same old policies.
Obama Doesn’t Plan to End the Iraq Occupation
“The New York Times is reporting about an "apparent evolution" in president-elect Barack Obama’s thinking on Iraq, citing his recent statements about his plan to keep a "residual force" in the country and his pledge to "listen to the recommendations of my commanders" as Obama prepares to assume actual command of US forces. "At the Pentagon and the military headquarters in Iraq, the response to the statements this week from Mr. Obama and his national security team has been akin to the senior officer corps’ letting out its collective breath," the Times reported. "[T]the words sounded to them like the new president would take a measured approach on the question of troop levels."
The reality is there is no "evolution."
Anyone who took the time to cut past Barack Obama’s campaign rhetoric of "change" and bringing an "end" to the Iraq war realized early on that the now-president-elect had a plan that boiled down to a down-sizing and rebranding of the occupation. While he emphasized his pledge to withdraw US "combat forces" from Iraq in 16 months (which may or may not happen), he has always said that he intends to keep "residual forces" in place for the foreseeable future.
It’s an interesting choice of terms. "Residual"” (Read more from antiwar.com)
Me: Can we create a cult of personality in support of the same policies that Bush pursued? Yes we can!
What Change? by Chuck Baldwin, 2008 Constitution Party Presidential Candidate
“Obama excelled in delivering the message of change. So, what kind of change will Obama actually deliver?” (Read more from newswithviews.com)
Palestinians say nothing will change under Obama
“Most Palestinians think the election of Barack Obama as US president will have no impact on the chances of a solution to the conflict with Israel, an opinion poll published on Wednesday said. It found that 57.5% of those Palestinians who were questioned thought that Obama’s election ‘will make no difference.'” (Read more from ynetnews.com)