A laundry list of broken promises

Rick Moran

As Mitt Romney pivots his campaign toward a discussion of budget and fiscal issues, the Republican National Committee has trotted out the tried and true weapon to use against incumbents; a list of broken promises.

Fox News:

The tally sheets on President Obama's campaign promises are nearly complete as Republicans try in the final months of the election season to hold the president's feet to the fire for whatever broken pledges they can find. 

The Republican National Committee and Mitt Romney campaign are both focusing sharply on those pledges, not the least of which was the president's 2009 vow to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Romney and his aides have been mentioning that broken promise regularly in recent days. 

As the campaign veers from side issue to side issue -- be it Romney's tax returns or Obama's fiddling with welfare reform -- expect Republicans to return focus when possible to several of these pledges as they try to cast the president as a leader who has not lived up to the rhetoric of his 2008 race. 

Other campaign promises that are on the list of broken pledges to the American people:

1. Fix the economy. Yes, it's a slam dunk.

2. Close Gitmo. We forget that, after campaigning by viciously criticizing President Bush's actions in fighting terrorism, in the end, Obama embraced almost the entire Bush regimen on the War on Terror, including maintaining the prison at Guantanamo, rendition, and military tribunals.

3. Televise health care debate. Forgot about that one. And remember Obama's pledge to post bills online for 5 days before voting on them?

4. Increase transparency. This sums up the administration's claim to "transparency":

"President Obama has run one of the least transparent administrations in American history," Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said recently. "Whether hiding lobbyists in coffee shops, cutting back-room deals on ObamaCare, or concealing the records of Fast and Furious, President Obama's pledge to be transparent has turned out to be just another broken promise."

This attack is always good because what else do the voters expect except that politicians do what they say they will do? Highlighting Obama's broken promises is just one more device to make voters think about the choice they will have in November.

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