Promises Promises, Broken

Let’s talk about campaign promises. Every election has them. And every four years we get the campaign promises from the presidential wannabees. Bush didn’t need to do much promising in 2004 because he just needed to let Kerry lose the election. But back in 2000 he laid out a mountain of them. Many of them seem ludicrous now in retrospect. For example, Election Reform (same old same old), Smaller Government (we’ve got a bigger government than ever), and uniting the parties for a functional congress (no comment necessary).

We need to keep this mind when we hear the trash coming out of the mouths of the likes of Barack Obama, John Edwards, or Rudy Giuliani. Every politician must somehow later reconcile the campaign promises or be viewed as a fraud (like Bush) when/if they win.

This might explain some of Hillary Clinton’s perceived vagueness on certain issues. She sees herself as winning and is keeping an eye on that distant horizon rather than the nit picky business at hand. She could just be cautious about what she says now. After all, she’s been here before as the spouse of a President. This Wall Street Journal article gives some good insight on Hillary:

…Sen. Clinton views her campaign as a template for her possible presidency. Having witnessed Bill Clinton’s early struggles reconciling campaign promises with governing — and guided by his private advice now — she knows first hand that what candidates say now for political points can haunt them as president.

From that perspective, the vagueness coming from Hillary Clinton doesn’t look nearly as bad as the fairy tales coming Barack Obama. But I still don’t want her as president!

Clinton Hits Rough Patch As Iowa Showdown Nears