Candidate Obama versus President Obama

So, we have a simple comparison to make. If the question is, has Barack Obama delivered what he promised as a candidate, it is a simple matter to look back at the campaign and see what it was he promised... and then look at how he has governed.

Candidate Obama made an oft-repeated mantra of changing the "politics as usual", of getting away from backroom deals, of announcing how evil "special interest hand-outs" were. We were treated to the famous line "There will be no place, let me repeat that, no place in my administration for lobbyists", as well as the equally-famous "the process will be in the open, so everyone can... we'll put in on C-SPAN, so everyone can see who's making the backroom deals and cutting deals with the special interests..."

Reality: President Obama wrote a rule that said no lobbyists... and took less than 24 hours to start writing one after another exemption to the rule. Big surprise: the rule becomes no rule, when you make mass exceptions to it.

Reality: the entire health-care process has been written by the special few in the Democrat leadership, behind closed doors, with no camera access. We know now that the bill is rife with deals to special interest groups and rife with backroom deals among the politicians. We know that the process has been the opposite of "open and transparent."

On the issue of governance, of how to govern, on how to get rid of corruption and "change the politics as usual", the Candidate had good ideas. The President Obama, however, has literally gone back on ALL of those ideas, governing in the exact manner he had criticized.

And he wonders why people can't seem to "get the message". Mr. President, they got the message very clearly. And therein lay your problem, sir. They got the message that they had bought Candidate Obama's promises of governance... and were given the exact opposite.