Knight Ridder analysis:Bush kept 46 percent of campaign 2000 promises

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - President Bush will spell out his plans for the new year and beyond in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, but there's already plenty on his to-do list.

A Knight Ridder analysis shows that Bush has fulfilled about 46 percent of the promises he made during the 2000 campaign, leaving a lot of work to do in the last year of what he hopes is only his first term.

He's had some big wins. He pushed two big tax cuts through Congress, added prescription drug coverage to Medicare and won passage of his plan to overhaul education.

He's also had some big setbacks. Congress rebuffed many of his ideas for forging closer cooperation between the government and faith-based charities. His producer-friendly energy policy is caught in a tug-of-war between the House of Representatives and the Senate. In fact, Congress has killed or stalled at least 25 percent of Bush's commitments, despite being controlled for much of the time by his own Republican Party.

The president's plans to overhaul Social Security and revamp the nation's legal system are on hold in the face of congressional opposition. Administration officials say Bush remains committed to both, although no action is likely in this presidential election year.

......much more, includes comprehensive list of failure

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/7737606.htm

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. DId he promise to put us 3/4 of a trillion in debt?

[bluestateguy]

2. I don't care

Great presidencies are not judged like a scorecard on the basis of what percentage of campaign promises are kept. In 1932, FDR promised economy in government and a balanced budget. Um, that did not happen, so I guess he's was a crummy president. Bill Clinton broke some campaign promises like the middle class tax cut (probably a smart move) and other promises that he did keep Iwish he had broken (NAFTA).

No historian or political scientist who rates past American presidents ever judges them by how many campaign promises he kept while in office.

Uggh! That's such a Dayton-Ohio, typical swing voter thing to do!