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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 ANALYSIS 
5

100 Days: Biggest Promises Kept, Broken

The economy has changed the stakes since the campaign began

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(Newser) – One way to judge President Obama's first 100 days in office is to look at his rhetoric on the campaign trail. Taking into account the fallout from the economic crisis, PolitFact came up with the most crucial promises Obama has kept and broken. His vow to beef up alternative-energy investment looks good, but those about getting tough on lobbyists seem a bit toothless.

The president's greatest achievement, according to the Pulitzer Prize-winning number-crunchers at the St. Petersburg Times, has been to turn a recession into an opportunity to double investment in renewable energy. The flip side is the upshot of tough talk on the campaign trail that lobbyists' "days of setting the agenda are over." After 100 days, an awful lot of former lobbyists are cashing government paychecks.

President Barack Obama speaks about his alternative energy plan following a plant tour at the Trinity Structural Towers Inc. in Newton, Iowa, Wednesday, April 22, 2009.
President Barack Obama speaks about his alternative energy plan following a plant tour at the Trinity Structural Towers Inc. in Newton, Iowa, Wednesday, April 22, 2009.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
President Barack Obama makes remarks about investments in clean energy and new technology included in the budget, Monday, March 23, 2009, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
President Barack Obama makes remarks about investments in clean energy and new technology included in the budget, Monday, March 23, 2009, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Barack Obama, then D-Ill., talks about the influence of health care lobbyists in crafting health care legislation on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007.
Barack Obama, then D-Ill., talks about the influence of health care lobbyists in crafting health care legislation on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007.   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
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5 comments
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Corona_Kinq
Apr 29, 09 8:51 AM CDT
You win some you lose some. On the campaign trail started I'm sure he wasn't anticipating spending 90% of his time dealing with the crappy economy. In general campaign promises are stupid anyway because you have no idea what the country will be like when you take office. Reply
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Rob
Apr 29, 09 10:04 AM CDT
Are you kidding? The whole tail end of the campaign was abouit the economy!
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Mad
Apr 29, 09 10:42 AM CDT
Lobbyist is a broad spectrum term, it can mean anyone from an individual representing his simple idea on how to make a better widget, to a billion dollar company making trillions of widgets; the thing to watch out for is how much influence the government allows the lobbyist to weld. For instance; Cheney had oil CEO's making American energy policy and refused to even tell the public who was at the meetings, much less what was decided. That's the lobbyist we needed to curtail, and I believe Obama did just that Reply
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Derni
Apr 29, 09 12:33 PM CDT
I'm tired of hearing about the 100 days-I'm sick of the report cards-We all know (I'm a democrat and an indenpendent) that the situation our counbtry is in will take a long time to correct-so lets not put pressure on anyone regardless of party affiliation. I woiuld like to see both parties work together but I guess it's hard to give up the genetic inclination to grease each others hand-thus our political parties operate this way in order to maintain their homeostatsis. Reply
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oldgoat
Apr 30, 09 3:17 AM CDT
Trying to find someone that is familiar with working in the gov and the job that they are looking at will usually mean that they are a lobbyist. Maybe he didn't think that it would be that hard to find a non lobby person to do that. Reply
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