Scoring The President On His Promises

President Obama made 508 promises during the 2008 campaign, how many did he keep?

Politifact: Scoring President Obama On His Campaign Promises
USA Today: Fact Checking The Opening Night of The DNC

Guest:

Bill Adair, creator and editor of Politifact

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X-Ray

The claim that Obama ended the war in Iraq is clearly false. It was Bush who, in
2008 while he was still President, signed the agreement to pull out U.S. troops
by the end of 2011. Obama only complied with the agreement. Further, we still
have 17,000 (!) there. In fact, Obama made it known that he would like to extend
the American commitment but was rebuffed by the Iraqis who rejected the Status
of Forces Agreement (SoFA). And Obama waited until the bitter end of the
agreement to actually do the drawdown. And now his apologists credit him with
ending that occupation. And, of course, we are still in Afghanistan and Obama
has extended our commitment there for an additional 10 years. Sad.
- Phil Brett
  
  Last I checked, what’s going on in Iraq is still going on. Obama didn’t promise to end the war in Iraq. He promised to get US troops the hell of harm’s way. In a place where they should have never been and where there are no weapons of mass destruction. Just like UN inspectors told us ten years ago.
  - X-Ray
    
    If we not doing fighing, and there are no WMD for us to find, why is Obama keeping 17,000 there? For what rational purpose? At what cost and at what risk? What does he have up his sleeve to implement after the election?
    - mattlove1
      
      Keep up the good work, X-Ray. How can we make an informed decision of where to go if we don’t know where we’ve been and where we are now?
Doug Sweet

Well, you should note that the republicans have not brought up this issue because it would require speaking the name of George W. Bush, something they are avoiding at all costs. The current group hopes the American people will forget the disaster the last republican president was.

I will also point out that we got out of Iraq a lot more smoothly than Vietnam. I know, because I was there.
Phil Brett

Is Politifact on crack? His biggest promise bringing the two parties together. Really? Affordable Care, Ending the Iraq war? the Stimulus package. When the Senate minority “leader” states that his primary job is to make the president a one-term president can you really talk about a promise broken? When the Senate obliterates the record for filibuster, you call that a promise broken? The Bush tax cuts were a secured by holding the government hostage. Oh, Politifact does fact check the governors of states. J-K. John Kasich gets all kinds of promises kept because he works with a rubber stamp gop legislature. And he has kept his promise to divide and conquer and throw anyone who disagrees with him under the bus.
- Mrdunn53
  
  The Democrats controled the House, Senate and White House for the first 2 plus years of Obama’s presidency. It was a filibuster proof Senate. The Democrats could have passed ANYTHING they wanted to at that period in time. Ask yourself, why didn’t they pass immigration reform, higher taxes, end the war in Iraq before the previous date set by a Bush agreement, pull all troops out of Afganistan, etc. The Democrats controlled all three parts of the govt. Use your head and stop being a puppet!
  - Skinnermd88
    
    The Blue dog Dems are really Repugs in disguise. That is why nothing productive was done for the first2 years. of Obamas first term.. Any time a Repug is in the mix, he is always blocking progress.
J__o__h__n

From the Politifact website linked from this story:

“Sixteen percent are rated Broken, often because they hit a brick wall in Congress. Global warming legislation passed the House but died in the Senate.”

How does legislation that “hit a brick wall in Congress” equal a broken promise? That isn’t a broken promise. It is something he failed to achieve because Congress refused to work with him. For accurate scoring, include all of those under the failure to overcome partizanship (which was a stupid promise to have made).
- Mrdunn53
  
  The Democrates control the Senate. Talk to Harry Reid!!
BHA_in_Vermont

How about a count of promises made but blocked by the Republicans not based on reasonable ideological differences with attempts to compromise on what would be good for this country, but a goal of “One term president”.
- J__o__h__n
  
  How many times have the Republicans kept their promise to try to make Obama a one term president by obstructing everything he proposes? The high number of times they kept that promise isn’t good for the country.
- Mrdunn53
  
  The Republicans only control the House. The Democrats control the Senate and White House. Many of the Pres. bills have been passed in the House but have never been brought to a vote in the Senate. Maybe you should contact Harry Reid and get his to put it up to a vote. A budget would be nice too!!
http://www.MarkCz.com/ Mark Czerniec

Deval Patrick said, “Massachusetts was 47th in the nation in job creation.” Even though this is actually true, PolitiFact rates it “half true,” because external forces beyond a governor’s control can affect employment levels. On the other hand, Michele Bachmann says, “The day President Obama took office, gasoline was $1.79 a gallon.” PolitiFact rates this statement as fully “true”: http://bit.ly/OZExTy

Rachel Maddow is right. PolitiFact’s glass is half whim.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1444027466 Rob Tanner
  
  And Rachel Maddow is part of “2 girls one cup”.