Just over 1 year ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States of America & in just a few days he will deliver his first State of the Union Address. However, it will not be his first speech before a Joint Session of Congress. He delivered two non-State of the Union Addresses, his first February 24 & the second on September 9. I would venture a guess that most people do not remember the content of either speech, but do remember that Joe Wilson shouted, “YOU LIE!”
As a reminder, the message of the February speech was the economy; specifically, the “stimulus”package, TAARP and the (ever popular) future of the country. With the main message of the September address being “health care reform” - the subject of Joe Wilson's “outburst.” The President that campaigned on bringing “hope and change” has proven short on promises fulfilled.
PolitiFact (which keeps tabs on such things) shows the President has only “kept” 91 of 503 promises made during the campaign. Among the promises “kept”, PolitiFact lists “directing military leaders to end the war in Iraq,” “no permanent bases in Iraq” & many promises that lead to increased (and questionably Constitutional) spending. But, speaking of Iraq, the troops are still there with no plans of leaving any time soon. Would it be a “promise kept” if i promised to leave your property and not establish a permanent presence, only to remain in your front yard with my car parked in your driveway? I think not!

Among the most notorious of the “broken promises” are the promises to “Allow five days of public comment before signing bills,” “Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials,” “Reduce earmarks to 1994 levels” & “Negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN.”

In total, PolitiFact has the breakdown as:
* Promise Kept 91
* Promise Broken 15
* Compromise 33
* Stalled 87
* In the Works 275
* Not yet rated 2

I doubt President Obama or anyone on his staff would have guessed that one year into his term, the economy would still be bad, his approval rating so low (currently 45%) and that he would've only kept 18.09% of his campaign promises. Oddly, there is only a difference of 0.7% between his “promise kept” percentage and the “real” unemployment rate (17.3%). In the remaining 3 years of Obama's term, there will be bigger government, more spending, more war, more inflation of the currency & more encroachments on our liberties, in the end we (peaceful freedom loving individuals) will be left “hoping for change.”