This strikes me as a rather good idea:
PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.
So far, the site lists seven promises as ‘kept.’ Of course, new events may alter how Obama should and will implement his platform. Also, there is some subjectivity in assessing whether a promise has been kept. Still, it will be interesting to see how his score develops.
He seems to be down by two since you wrote this. The page now lists only five ‘kept’ promises.
Yes, He Did
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Credit where it’s due: Well done, Mr. Obama. I’m sure we’ll have our differences, but afer your first 40+ hours on the job, this libertarian couldn’t be happier.
I hate to be the grumbler, but aren’t we in danger of souring every decent politician we actually do get if we then turn around and hold them to a higher standard than their predecessors? Political realities prevent a lot of leaders from accomplishing everything they’d hoped. I’m sure Bush (2) and Clinton all had fairly lousy promise-keeping track records – even Trudeau wasn’t able to deliver many of the things he had promised. The fact that Obama has kept *any* of his promises already sets him above most, especially as they’ve been some of the important ones.
Sasha,
I am certainly willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt, for now. Like most people worldwide, I very much hope he manages to implement some of the more ambitious things he promised during his campaign. I also hope this global financial crisis doesn’t become too much of a distraction from the long-term issues that are actually more important, whether those are reforming entitlement programs (so as not to utterly bankrupt the government in a few years) or putting in place a global framework for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
The Change-o-Meter
Obama lifts the “gag rule” on abortion counseling.
By Chris Wilson
Posted Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, at 6:18 PM ET
How To Count Change
Michael Newman and Chris Wilson take your questions about Slate’s quantitative gauge of Obama’s progress.
Posted Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, at 7:52 PM ET
It’s All Very Stimulating
Introducing Debate-o-Matic: Slate’s guide to this week’s arguments in Washington.
By John Dickerson
Posted Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, at 5:56 PM ET
Should these really all count for the same number of points?
No. 177: Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center
No. 373: Encourage community service through online outreach and social networking
No. 502: Get his daughters a puppy
Lexington
Betrayed by Obama
Jan 22nd 2009
From The Economist print edition
Some of the new president’s most ardent supporters already feel let down
“Should Mr Obama worry about all this? Not much. For one thing, he is still hugely popular. A whopping 79% of Americans approve of him. Two days before the inauguration, when a preacher told a crowd that Mr Obama was not the Messiah, he was booed (in jest, one hopes). For another, Mr Obama is not breaking as many promises as his former fans imagine. Mostly, he is breaking only promises they think he made. Had they read the small print, they would have seen that he left himself some wiggle room. During his campaign Mr Obama was, as he put it himself, “a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project[ed] their own views”. He gave a lot of people the strong impression that their most urgent goals were also his. As president, he can no longer maintain this illusion.”