Comments | brooksmoses: So, yeah, about those first few days

brooksmoses

So, yeah, about those first few days

Jan 23, 2009 09:39

I'm seeing a fair bit of startlement among some people in my friendslist regarding the things that Obama's done in his first few days in office. It's almost as if they had this expectation that, because the metaphorical scaffolding was still up and a lot of the superstructure was being assembled, he wasn't yet ready to actually issue orders and ( Read more... )

Comments 10

rosefox January 23 2009, 17:49:17 UTC

I think it's more shock to see a politician keeping his campaign promises, including controversial ones.

brooksmoses January 23 2009, 19:54:29 UTC

Fair enough, but the post I was particularly responding to seemed quite clear that a fair portion of the author's surprise was from the "breakneck speed" of it.

seawasp January 23 2009, 18:16:43 UTC

What Rosefox said. He clearly Just Doesn't Get It. He could at least have had the decency to wait a few weeks, do some waffling, enact some questionable laws, before sneaking in a few actual promises kept.

quercus January 23 2009, 18:24:34 UTC

You only do it to taunt the Brits

There I was, happily thinking he was my president for a day or two, then I get to read about our bunch doing this and realise we're still stuck with the old guard 8-(
http://www.no2id.net/news/newsletters/newsletter.php?issue=115

brooksmoses January 23 2009, 18:33:49 UTC

Oh, ugh. Yeah, yours clearly shared techniques with our old bunch.

bibliotrope January 23 2009, 21:17:43 UTC

From Politifact:
Obama keeps promises on his first day.

They even have an Obameter to list the promises kept, in the works, etc. The current count is

* Promise Kept 6
* Compromise 1
* Promise Broken 0
* Stalled 1
* In the Works 14
* No Action 488

I'm not sure that's at all bad considering he's only been in office three days!

wordweaverlynn January 23 2009, 22:40:54 UTC

I am impressed. I am very impressed.

zeborahnz January 23 2009, 23:17:06 UTC

For me it's startling because in New Zealand there's no one person who has the power to make changes like that unilaterally. I keep forgetting that the US really is just a monarchy with a set of procedures for ensuring a high turnover rate.

aquaeri January 24 2009, 04:07:35 UTC

Ditto.

heleninwales January 24 2009, 16:41:36 UTC

Indeed. And here in the UK we have the Civil Service, which doesn't change with the government in power and acts as a damper on the system to prevent wild swings of policy happening too fast. I mean, in this case, people on my Friends List are happy about what's happening in the US, but sometimes a bit of delay is a good thing.