Obama's One-Year Report Card

CBS New Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante Grades The President

(CBS)  A recent Gallup poll found the number of Americans who think President Obama is keeping his campaign promises is down drastically - from 65 percent in April to just 48 percent now, proving that making promises is much easier than keeping them, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.

Candidate Barack Obama made more than 500 hundred promises during his campaign.

But a year since his election, fulfilling those promises has proven difficult.

The biggest: health insurance for the nation's 40 million uninsured.

INCOMPLETE

Health care reform, though a bill is in the works.

On Jan. 22, the new president vowed to close Guantanamo Bay within a year and transfer the 200 plus prisoners to other facilities. Again, incomplete: thus far no money has been allotted and no one has agreed to take the detainees.

PROMISES KEPT:

The president has kept his campaign promise to begin drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq and increase them in Afghanistan, even as he ponders sending more.

On taxes, candidate Obama said no family making $250,000 a year or less will see a tax increase.

A year may be too soon to judge - but some of the promises - especially "no taxes," may prove impossible to keep.

[amacd385]

Well, it's certainly abundantly clear today that when Obama told us, before the election, that Bill Ayers of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) had absolutely no influence on him, that he was telling the truth ---- because Obama has sure as hell not been dong anything to fight for a 'democratic society'!

Obama never mentioned anything, before we 'gave him' our votes, about the ruling-elite corporate/financial imperialist war-machine, and racist tyranny of economic oppression that SDS fought against in the late 1960's.

Obama was being truthful with us when he totally ignored the very existence of this ruling-elite corporate/financial Empire that controls our country by hiding behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy, and he was being totally truthful when he said nothing about this Empire that he himself was about to become the best front-man for.

It's just that we were too stupid, before the election, to ask him, "Hey, what about this Empire that is killing our country and the world? Will you represent this deceitful and hidden corporate/financial Empire or or will you represent us?"

We never asked him about which side he was on in our battle with Empire --- so he wasn't lying when he said nothing, because we never asked the right question!

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

PS. At least Bill Ayers and his fellow Students for a Democratic Society were smart enough to ask students joining them in fighting against the imperialist war-monger/racist Empire, "Are you with us or are you just an infiltrator from the Empire 'posing' as one of us, in order to turn on us and wreck the movement."

We never even asked this phony plant if he was 'working for the man' --- working for the Empire. Shame on us.

As the old saying goes, "If you fool me once about an imperialist president, shame on you. But if you fool me, a dozen times, about an imperialist president --- shame on all of us".

[Thorne1960]

Thank you for such an in-depth analysis.

[55andstillalive]

That's too funny. I was thinking exactly the same thing.