Pre-SOTU state of play, by Politifact.

[SirNitram]

Non-partisan group Politifacts is very good at keeping the spin out.(A Pulitizer I think was WELL earned). So let's view their rundown on Obama's Promises in the time of the State Of The Union.

Promises Kept: 91.
Compromise: 33.
Broken: 15
Stalled: 87
In The Works: 275
N/A(Listed as not yet rated): 2.

Rundown of each category here: Link

Comments, critiques?

[Big Phil]

The 91 kept promises are far outweighed by the handle of promises he's failed (so far) to keep or on which he has compromised or quit. Regardless of the specific promises, however, Obama's biggest failure to date is his inability to actually govern, and the inability of the Democrats to act like the party actually in the majority. They wasted all of the energy from the 2008 campaign on bickering and attempts at compromise, and now the country is entering 2010 depressed, feeling hopeless about the Democrats, and in some cases considering voting Republican or not voting at all in the 2010 elections, all because the Democrats are perceived as having given up on a number of issues important to Americans. Such a fucking waste...

[Garibaldi]

Obama's biggest failure to date is his inability to actually govern, and the inability of the Democrats to act like the party actually in the majority

While I don't think Obama has been nearly as aggressive as he ought to have been, and the Democratic Party is dysfunctiona joke, let's not lose sight of the fact that it is in fact the Republican Party which is making governance impossible. Even if Obama was whip-cracking the Dems around like they were Kunta Kinte and keeping them 100% in line (which would be impossible under the best of circumstances) it's difficult at best to govern in an environment where there is a radical minority party doing everything in their power to obstruct even the most basic functions of the government. Part of their failure is in fact a failure of the system itself.

[The Romulan Republic]

The 91 kept promises are far outweighed by the handle of promises he's failed (so far) to keep or on which he has compromised or quit.

He is one fourth of the way through his first term. Faced with statistics that show 91 promises kept to 15 broken and 33 compromised, all you can say is that Obama hasn't done everything in his first year?

I'm disappointed with Obama too, but I never expected him to do everything in one year. I think that while some of the disappointment with Obama is justified, a lot of it is due to unrealistic expectations people had when in came in. People who interpreted "change" as "create their version of Utopia in his first hundred days."

He has a bad situation and four years to deal with it. Let him use them.

[Crossroads Inc.]

The 91 kept promises are far outweighed by the handle of promises he's failed (so far) to keep or on which he has compromised or quit.

He is one fourth of the way through his first term. Faced with statistics that show 91 promises kept to 15 broken and 33 compromised, all you can say is that Obama hasn't done everything in his first year?

I'm disappointed with Obama too, but I never expected him to do everything in one year. I think that while some of the disappointment with Obama is justified, a lot of it is due to unrealistic expectations people had when in came in. People who interpreted "change" as "create their version of Utopia in his first hundred days."

He has a bad situation and four years to deal with it. Let him use them.

Oh please.. this isn't a matter of him doing everything in the first year, it is a matter of him doing ANYTHING in the first year. Everything that has come up has been a fucking waste cause he can't get the people in the House together.

[The Romulan Republic]

Thank you for ignoring what I just posted.

91 promises kept. Maybe you have a problem with the credibility of the source for that number. But in that case, present your evidence. Don't just ignore it.

And the House isn't the problem so much as the Senate is.

[SirNitram]

Oh please.. this isn't a matter of him doing everything in the first year, it is a matter of him doing ANYTHING in the first year. Everything that has come up has been a fucking waste cause he can't get the people in the House together.

House actually passes alot of his bills. You're thinking the Senate, which the GOP has, sadly, successfully overturned the Constitutional requirement of a simple majority by their ridiculous tactics. The Senate, as alot of people say, is where good bills go to die.

Frankly, though, I take exception at your opinion of nothing worthwhile passing. The EPA finally declaring greenhouse gases harmful, the SEC now requiring disclosure of public companies on their enviromental impact, the Credit Card Bill of Rights, the Fed's ban on overdraft at ATMs and debit cards(Going into effect soon!), and his negotiations for a new nuclear reduction treaty with RUssia.. Aren't wasted effort. Nor is the Matthew Sheppard Act, expanded to include gender identity. THat was huge, especially the expansion. And me, personally can name more, but I love me research initiatives.

[Big Phil]

I don't care about the numbers of piddly promises kept; there were a few BIG things he said he would do that he hasn't done yet. I'd be satisfied if there were at least a reasonable plan to complete it in place, but all we're getting is flowery speeches and empty promises.

1. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - there's a "plan" for getting out, but I have as much confidence in that plan as I would of George W. Bush successfully running a sports team.

2. Healthcare - he spent all of 2009 acting like a Senator rather than the President. Instead of saying "healthcare must address these things" he kept silent while Democrats and Republicans alike developed a bill that pretty much only serves to screw over the American public while enriching the health insurance companies.

3. Fix the economy/Wall Street - Obama talks a good game about benefiting Main Street rather than Wall Street, but it's only Wall Street being paid millions of dollars in bonuses using taxpayer money while Main Street continues to suffer job losses.

4. Balance the budget - despite spending money like a drunken sailor, neither Obama nor the Democrats have done anything to either increase revenues/taxes or cut expenses. Instead they're content to perpetually run trillion dollar deficits and pray to the gods that the economy will turn around to bail them out. What happened to Obama's vaunted "eliminate the Bush era tax cuts" pledge? That's a pretty major one that everyone not a Republican would happily support, and yet it hasn't happened.

[SirNitram]

4. Balance the budget

I'm going to give him some credit for this for two reasons:

Reinstation of PAYGO, so we can finally begin to repair the damage of Bush's era, when, as the GOP said, SOP was not to pay.

Recession. Big one. One not going away. Hoover was a failure in the Great Depression because he straddled the 'balance the budget' canard and humped it vigorously.

[The Romulan Republic]

1. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - there's a "plan" for getting out, but I have as much confidence in that plan as I would of George W. Bush successfully running a sports team.

He never promised he was going to leave Afghanistan. He promised he would make it a priority (unlike Bush), and he's done that.

2. Healthcare - he spent all of 2009 acting like a Senator rather than the President. Instead of saying "healthcare must address these things" he kept silent while Democrats and Republicans alike developed a bill that pretty much only serves to screw over the American public while enriching the health insurance companies.

He did make that one big speech where he outlined what he wanted, and it sounded pretty good to me. For that matter, the Bill that came out of the House wasn't that bad. The main problem lies in the Senate, and the fact is, while Obama could have been more vocal and insistent, he cannot force 60 Senators to vote the way he wants.

3. Fix the economy/Wall Street - Obama talks a good game about benefiting Main Street rather than Wall Street, but it's only Wall Street being paid millions of dollars in bonuses using taxpayer money while Main Street continues to suffer job losses.

Not entirely fair, unless you are going to completely dismiss Obama's claims of jobs saved through the stimulus programs.

4. Balance the budget - despite spending money like a drunken sailor, neither Obama nor the Democrats have done anything to either increase revenues/taxes or cut expenses. Instead they're content to perpetually run trillion dollar deficits and pray to the gods that the economy will turn around to bail them out. What happened to Obama's vaunted "eliminate the Bush era tax cuts" pledge? That's a pretty major one that everyone not a Republican would happily support, and yet it hasn't happened.

Well, there is the new spending freeze.

[Count Chocula]

If you look at the "Promises Kept" listing, there are a few in there that are actually good; the "send two brigades to Afghanistan" one is a plus.

However, the "Promises Broken," "Promises Stalled," and "Promises in the Works" columns are filled with much more substantitive issues than those kept. Really, how many Americans really give a fuck about Promise # 174? And, as a larger consideration, why the fuck did he make so many promises to so many different factions? Trying to fulfill them all means that he will most likely piss off dozens of factions in his own party, much less the Republican. For a guy whose campaign mantra was the amorphous "Hope And Change," he made a lot of specific commitments that will inevitably bite him on the ass. The Politifact link is informative, no doubt, but it would be nice if at least a WAG was made regarding the scale and impact of the "promises" he made. Maybe a weighted estimate of the impact of one promise kept, postponed, etc. on the totality of his promises? At least try to quantify the impact.

From what I can see, he's kept the easy one-signature promises and postponed the contentious ones. The disarray that is currently the Democratic party seems to support that conclusion.

[Oskuro]

I'm a bit out of the loop but, wouldn't the most important promises, the ones with greater impact and thus more controversial, be the ones made harder to fulfill by the opposition?

I'm personally tired of how people get tunnel vision when it comes to politics, only caring about blaming the current government about what ails them, without taking notice of the actions and consequences of previous governments, or the actions of the oppossing parties.
The worst part is that these gut reactions is what parties like the GOP capitalize on, instead of offering alternative solutions, they focus on making people hate their opponents, and it is very sad how often this technique works.

[Stargate Nerd]

Blaming Republicans and the Senate for healthcare stalling is pretty convenient, but last I remember Obama didn't do jack to convince or pressure Lincoln, Landrieu, Nelson or Lieberman to support a decent healthcare reform bill. Lieberman said as much on TV after the whole Medicare Buy In debacle.

As for this list, yes Obama is an improvement on Bush. But on all the most important things like financial regulation, healthcare reform, global warming etc. he utterly failed.

[The Romulan Republic]

Blaming Republicans and the Senate for healthcare stalling is pretty convenient, but last I remember Obama didn't do jack to convince or pressure Lincoln, Landrieu, Nelson or Lieberman to support a decent healthcare reform bill. Lieberman said as much on TV after the whole Medicare Buy In debacle.

Maybe, but I'm going to take anything Lieberman says on the matter with a big fucking grain of salt.

As for this list, yes Obama is an improvement on Bush. But on all the most important things like financial regulation, healthcare reform, global warming etc. he utterly failed.

He still has at least three more years. To say that he has failed one quarter (or one eighth) of the way through is a bit premature to me.