Thursday, January 22, 2009

Helping the President

During the recent election campaign for the Presidency of the United States, Barack Obama made over 500 promises.

He was promoting that change had to come to the United States and he was claiming to be the one who could do this.

A majority of the American people did agree with Barack Obama, voted for him and now he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

That is all very fine.
But knowing how politics go, the essential issue now is to see what is coming true of all the promises made.

The United States is a country with a high level of democracy.
And a high level of communication infrastructure.

Those two things combined have resulted in “The Obameter”.
The St. Petersburg Times from Florida has created this remarkable tool.
“The Obameter” is published on a website for anybody to see.
And it is for free!

It is a list of over 500 promises Barack Obama has been making.
The people behind “The Obameter” track the progress on the promises.
And rate them from “Promise Kept” to “Promise Broken”.

After two days of Presidency, Barack Obama has already kept 6 promises.

1/
No. 13: Require taxpayers to report more detail on capital gains taxes

2/
No. 125: Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq

3/
No. 240: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials

4/
No. 241: Require new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions.

5/
No. 427: Ban lobbyist gifts to executive employees

6/
No. 503: Appoint at least one Republican to the cabinet

It really makes sense to go to this website and bookmark it.
To repeatedly return there to see if any progress is made.
To be part of democracy.
To be concerned.
And to assist somebody to keep the promises.

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To see “The Obameter”, click on:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/




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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

After the elections comes the real world. no one, not even a madman, wants war. no one wants strife, arguments, disease, pestilence, communal trouble and so on...

Theory and real life are very removed. if you are first in class you dont have to be first in life!!

this rule applies everywhere.

wait and watch. my prediction is nothing much will change or can change. a president is bound by realities on the ground and not by idealism. or writers, painters and artists would be presidents!!

it is very easy for all of us to sit somewhere else and cast stones on some man or woman. sit in the hot seat and when your pants burn, your decisions will be different. unless we wear the same shoes we will not know the truth.

--rajendar menen from bombay, india