Predictions of 2008 came true

DON SURBER
Saturday June 12, 2010
Predictions of 2008 came true
If only Obama would break more promises
IN presidential campaigns, candidates often warn the voters that if they vote for the other guy, something bad will
happen.
But a strange transformation takes place on Inauguration Day. The presidential candidate becomes the president and
finds he must do exactly what he warned the public the other guy was going to do.
In other words, his opponent was right.
And his opponent's supporters love to remind the public of what happened with a little construction that ends with
"and they were right."
The first time I heard it was from supporters of Barry Goldwater, who lost in 1964 to Lyndon Johnson.
Goldwater supporters said they were told by the other side that if they voted for him, there would be 500,000 U.S.
troops in Saigon. Well, they voted for Goldwater - and the forecasters were right.
It happened on Lyndon Baines Johnson's watch.
And so it goes today as I watch President Obama go down the path of John McCain on many issues.
My favorites:
They told me that if I voted for McCain, enemy combatants would remain at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely. Well, I
voted for McCain and they were right.
They told me that if I voted for McCain, there would be nearly 100,000 troops stationed in Iraq indefinitely. Well, I
voted for McCain and they were right.
They told me that if I voted for McCain, the Bush tax cuts would continue. Well, I voted for McCain and they were
right.
They told me that if I voted for McCain, we would get a president who was in bed with big oil. Well, I voted for
McCain and they were right.
(Obama was the No. 1 recipient of campaign money from BP employees in the last 20 years.)
They told me if I voted for McCain, we would get a president who was in bed with Wall Street. Well, I voted for
McCain and they were right.
Predictions of 2008 came true - Don Surber - Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia New... Page 1 of 3
http://dailymail.com/Opinion/DonSurber/201006110469 06/13/10
(Obama received nearly $1 million from employees of Goldman Sachs.)
They told me that if I voted for McCain, we would have an attorney general who wanted to curtail civil rights. Well, I
voted for McCain and they were right.
(Attorney General Eric Holder said Congress should "give serious consideration" to changing Miranda rights to give
police "necessary flexibility" in dealing with terrorists.)
They told me that if I voted for McCain, Halliburton would continue to get big no-bid contracts from the military.
Well, I voted for McCain and they were right.
(Actually the Obama administration's no-bid contract went to KBR, which is the former Halliburton subsidiary that
obtained no-bid defense contracts under Presidents Clinton and Bush.)
I realize that presidents are never quite the same man that the presidential candidate was.
This is good. Running for the Oval Office is 180 degrees different from running the Oval Office.
I fully expected Obama to break campaign promises, and I hoped he would break them all.
We cannot afford a nuclear-free world or health-care insurance reform or this continuing string of bailouts of failures.
It is not that Obama has broken so many promises. He has not broken enough.
His pursuit of cap-and-trade taxes at a time when the economy is in the toilet is ridiculous.
What makes it ludicrous is that it comes at a time when the public is finally learning of the many, many lies in the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
In short, we are going to upend the nation's economy based on lies about the weather.
But there is one broken Obama promise I really wish he would reconsider. He promised to be post-partisan.
He has been mostly partisan.
That is a mistake he will regret. And it is the one mistake he still has time to correct.
Of all I was warned about in voting for McCain, predictions of bitter partisanship were not on the list.
Surber may be reached at donsur...@dailymail.com. His blog is at http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber.
COMMENTS (3) ON "PREDICTIONS OF 2008 CAME TRUE"
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I understand that Obama is a politician,but i also believe he has the county's be interest at heart which is more than i felt from McCain. Iraq was a mess Obama
inherited I for one did not expect that to come to some miraculous happy ending in a year. I don't see how we can afford to live a nuclear ridden world. when
countries star throwing nukes we are all going down, we need to start thinking global we are too many to keep thinking our patch earth is unaffected by each
countries abuse. And if the writter wants to point out how presidential candidates are changed men after election I personally did not wish to see the changes
and promises McCain would have broken and not lived up to. Instead of health care we would be paying to bomb all of the middle east killing as war lords love
to do. i would rather spend the money on healing. It's hard to lead people to change when they kicking and screaming the whole way.
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Posted By: jianmei61 (8:30am 06-12-2010) Report Abuse
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Make no mistake, as a liberal, I am disappointed in President Obama. He acts more like a Republican (an intelligent Republican) instead of supporting the
ideals that many of us were hoping for...as in real change for our country. What we have here is George W. Light. As 007 James Bond has said, "Government
change, but the lie remains the same."
Posted By: westfork3t (12:30am 06-12-2010) Report Abuse
Predictions of 2008 came true - Don Surber - Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia New... Page 3 of 3
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