Before we delve into the particulars of Obama’s broken promises, something must first be said about assessing the relative “badness” of a broken presidential campaign promise in the first place. Clearly all skilled candidates (even those without Obama’s incredible rhetoric) need to paint a glossy picture of the future they’ll be able to provide us as President.

However,  not surprisingly, candidates often find it difficult to follow through 100% of the time – even when they want to. Sometimes political expediency and/or the realities of a new day get in the way. Determining the relative “badness” of a broken campaign promise, then, has to do with how blatant, outrageous and unfathomable the betrayal - did the candidate lie, foolishly over-promise, or simply make a mistake? Perhaps a situation changed rendering the execution of a particular promise impossible.

So, four months into his Presidency, Obama is bound to have either forgotten, lost interest in, or even just plain shelved some of the things he vowed to change while he was out stumping for change.  Here are a noteworthy few - but check out Politfact for a complete list.

Recognizing the Armenian Genocide: Obama criticized Condoleeza Rice for firing John Evans, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, for using the term “genocide” in reference to Turkey’s slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians and vowed that as President, he would recognize the event as such. While Obama did make a statement about the event on April 24^th, Armenia’s day of memorial, he has not in fact used the word “genocide” and appeared to take great pains to avoid it during his visit there when asked specifically by a reporter from the Chicago Tribune.

Egregiousness Scale: 5

Assessment: While it does seem diffident for Obama to skirt around the very word he admonished Condy for avoiding, we have to respect the fact that this President needs to re- establish and then maintain respectful diplomacy with countries around the world, including Turkey. The fact is, the word ‘genocide’ makes everyone a little uncomfortable, especially when most of Turkey’s genocide perpetrators are dead. Obama will have future opportunities to drop the “g” word, once he’s good and chummy with Turkey’s President. And don’t think for a minute that Obama doesn’t personally recognize the genocide, he’s merely bending his promise a little bit for practical diplomatic reasons.

Ending Income Tax for Seniors Making Less than $50,000: Obama’s comprehensive pre- election tax plan proposed to “eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will eliminate taxes for 7 million seniors, saving them an average of $1,400 a year.” So far, this promise hasn’t made it into either the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) or Obama’s February budget outline.

Egregiousness Scale: 6

Assessment: Simply put, Obama made this promise before the economic crisis landed in our laps. Nevertheless, it’s still disappointing to leave low-income seniors sitting, waiting, wishing for a chance to buy food and meds in the same month. But, as we admit that as income tax remains a vital guaranteed revenue stream for the government, this promise might need to be put on hold until we turn the ship around.

Tougher Rules Against Revolving Door for Lobbyists and Former Officials: Obama promised that “No political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.” The President signed an executive order with similarly specific language on his first full day in office, ostensibly symbolizing his earnest commitment to the issue. However, a loophole came in the form of a waiver attached to the executive order which allows the administration to employ former lobbyists, and to date, the waiver has been used at least three times.

Egregiousness Scale: 8.5

Assessment: Clearly the most controversial of Obama’s promises, as wresting control of Washington away from the corporate lobby was one of the President’s most popular and resounding talking points last year. This one is going to be tough to come back from, assuming the administration continues to let former lobbyists and officials serve in spite of the order. While many Americans are still granting Obama generous license to add the best and brightest people to his team no matter their industry affiliations, he’ll be walking a very thin line if lobbyists start to pop up again and again.

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Tags: Barack Obama, obama broken promises, obama campaign, obama election promises, obama platform, obama presidential promises, obama promises

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 11:02 am and is filed under In American Politics, President Obama, The Politics of Government, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.