Obama ’12: The record he’ll run on

President Obama is described — or demagogued, depending on your view — as many mutually exclusive things; he’s been called a left-wing or socialist ideologue, but also a pragmatist and post-partisan dealmaker.

The 44th president is more elusive than many of his predecessors, and yet the 2012 election will be all about him.

{mosads}But even if the man himself is difficult to define, his achievements and failures with regard to his 2008 campaign promises are much more concrete.

Obama cannot be accused of being a do-nothing president; what is unclear is whether his progress toward his goals will hurt or help him.

Some of his crowning achievements — like healthcare reform — are not guaranteed vote-getters. And the lack of action in other areas — immigration reform, for instance — could ultimately be seen as politically prudent.

Other pledges, such as renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement or instituting a new assault weapons ban, seem to have been abandoned without great uproar from any quarter.

The famous aspiration to change Washington’s tone has foundered, though whether Obama will — or should — receive blame for this is very much open to question.

Meanwhile, his handling of an economy that was in crisis when he took office could overshadow all else.

Here is a look at what Obama has done on nine of his most prominent promises:


PROMISES BROKEN/UNFULFILLED

♦ GUANTÁNAMO BAY

PROMISE: “I think it is going to take some time … But I don’t want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantánamo.” 

On ABC’s “This Week,” Jan. 11, 2009

REALITY: The pledge to close Guantánamo within one year ran up against a wall of congressional opposition. In March 2011, Obama gave the go-ahead for military trials to resume at the detention camp, implicitly acknowledging it will not be closed.

♦ IMMIGRATION

PROMISE: “We need a president who isn’t going to walk away from something as important as comprehensive [immigration] reform when it becomes politically unpopular. … I will make it a top priority in my first year as president.” 

Speech to the League of United Latin American Citizens, July 8, 2008

REALITY: Other issues have consistently been given precedence. Obama is still making noises about wanting to do something on immigration, but congressional arithmetic weighs heavily against any grand bargain.

♦ CLIMATE CHANGE

PROMISE: “My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change. … Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.” 

Video address to the Governors’ Global Climate Summit, Nov. 18, 2008

REALITY: Hopes of a major initiative on the issue died more than a year ago, when a push for cap-and-trade legislation by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) foundered. In an interview with Rolling Stone last September, Obama admitted, “We’ve not made as much progress as I wanted,” but he still held out the prospect of passing piecemeal legislation.

♦ BUSH TAX RATES

PROMISE: “[There was] a failure of leadership in Washington — a Washington where George Bush handed out billions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthy few … and John McCain promises to make those same tax cuts permanent, embracing the central principles of Bush economic policy.” 

Campaign speech in Austin, Texas, Feb. 28, 2008

REALITY: Obama’s decision last December to compromise with the GOP and prolong the Bush tax rates for another two years attracted liberal ire. He argued it was a price worth paying to get an extension on unemployment insurance.

PROMISES KEPT

♦ HEALTHCARE REFORM

PROMISE: “The time has come for universal, affordable health care in America.” 

Campaign speech in Iowa City, May 29, 2007

REALITY: Obama’s defenders can legitimately point to the scale of his achievement here; the law will extend coverage to around 95 percent of the population. It isn’t universal healthcare, but it’s but much closer to it than anyone has gotten before.

♦ OSAMA BIN LADEN

PROMISE: “If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act, and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden.” 

Presidential debate, Oct. 7, 2008

REALITY: Obama’s remark now seems eerily prescient. On May 1, Navy SEALs acting on Obama’s orders killed bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

♦ IRAQ

PROMISE: “I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war: responsibly, deliberately but decisively … at a pace of one to two brigades a month. That pace translates into having our combat troops out in 16 months’ time.” 

Campaign press conference in Fargo, N.D., July 3, 2008.

REALITY: The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops took slightly longer than Obama envisioned: the last left in mid-August 2010, almost 19 months after his inauguration. But that hardly diminishes the larger point — that he has brought the divisive war to a de facto end.

♦ FINANCIAL REFORM

PROMISE: “It is time for the federal government to revamp the regulatory framework dealing with our financial markets.” 

Address on the economy in New York City, March 27, 2008

REALITY: The details were dizzyingly complex and the left was again disappointed in the results, but the Dodd-Frank Act nonetheless served as a fulfillment of Obama’s campaign promise of restoring and adding regulation to America’s markets.

♦ GAYS IN THE MILITARY

PROMISE: “I reasonably can see ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ eliminated. … We’re spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military.” 

Interview with The Advocate, April 2008

REALITY: Gay-rights activists complain about Obama’s opposition to same-sex marriage, but when it comes to “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” he has kept his side of the bargain. Obama signed a repeal of the law at the end of 2010.