Are Promises Made To Be Broken?

I'm disappointed in President Obama. (I know, a lot of you are very surprised at this statement.) At this very moment my disappointment is all about something Obama told the American people when he was out campaigning for the Presidency, something people believed was the Truth.

Mr. President stated that he would "close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely."

Okay. Sounds good to me! Obama took over on Tuesday, January 20th. How's he doing on that Promise so far?

Another Obama Nominee Seems to Run Afoul
of Anti-Lobbyist Campaign Rhetoric

January 13, 2009 9:37 AM

William Corr, whose name Mr. Obama put forward this morning to be deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was, until September 2008, a federal lobbyist with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, lobbying Congress unsuccessfully to require the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.

Wow. But Mr. President, doesn't this contradict what you told the American people? I hope you won't break any more promises.

FACT CHECK: Exceptions made to anti-lobbyist rule

By JIM DRINKARD (Jan 22, 2009)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama won lavish praise from good-government groups when he announced restrictions that he said would "close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely."

Less noticed on Wednesday was the asterisk added a few hours later by the president's spokesman, Robert Gibbs: "Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions," he told The Associated Press.

Already, there have been two prominent exceptions made to Obama's no-lobbyists rule. William J. Lynn III, his choice to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, was registered until July as a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon. And William Corr, tapped as deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate, according to public records. Corr has decided to take no part in tobacco matters in the new administration.

Mr. President? Again? A second lobbyist?
What happened to the closed door?

One watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, pressed Obama on Thursday to drop Lynn's nomination altogether.

"The defense industry is in a class of its own among all of the industries that have had a pervasive stranglehold on public policy to advance their own financial interests," said POGO executive director Danielle Brian.

"The Obama administration should not allow its ethics standards to begin with a series of waivers and loopholes which immediately undermine its good intentions," Brian said.

Any liberal dissent? This guy's a liberal:

No Lobbyist in the Obama Administration... Except When There Is One
January 22, 2009 03:45 PM ET

By Robert Schlesinger

if you're going to campaign on sweeping condemnations about the evil of lobbyists and then, with great fanfare, ban them from your administration, you need to live by your own rules; or at least you shouldn't start making exceptions for them on Day 1.

Else the message is: It is important to prevent other administrations from doing business with lobbyists; but we are of such moral character that the rules need not apply to us.

President Obama? Seriously? You said you were against having lobbyists in your administration. Now there are two. What can we possibly believe then?


Well, for the time being, I guess, we can believe you're NOT going to change what President George W. Bush was doing when it comes to KILLING the bad guys...

Dual Drone Attacks Kill at Least 15 in Pakistan

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: January 23, 2009

ISLAMABAD — Two missile attacks launched from unmanned American aircraft killed at least 15 people in western Pakistan on Friday, suggesting that the strategy of using drones to kill militants inside Pakistan’s borders would continue under President Obama.