President Obama's Scorecard on Promises Kept, Broken

Some Democrats are angry over President Obama's compromise on the Bush-era tax cuts and the president is suggesting they should cool down and take a closer look at the promises he's kept as commander-in-chief, and even since the campaign trail.

The president called out Democrats directly at a press conference Tuesday, saying they should maybe take count.

"[I] don't think there's a single Democrat out there who, if they looked at where we started when I came into office and look at where we are now, would say that somehow we have not moved in the direction that I promised.

Take a tally. Look at what I promised during the campaign. There's not a single thing that I've said that I would do that I have not either done or tried to do. And if I haven't gotten it done yet, I'm still trying to do it," Obama said.

Democrats have been fuming over Obama's concession to include Bush-era tax rates for the wealthiest in America, which he did in part to ensure Republicans would extend unemployment insurance.

Those in his base -- ranging from Moveon.org to newspaper columnists to lawmakers on the Hill -- are saying that he gave in too much and should have stuck to his core Democratic beliefs.

So if one takes a closer look at Obama's record, how has he done as far as promises go?

Well, that's a little bit tricky to tally -- and certainly depends on who you ask and how he/she is grading.

Obama passed health care for example for without the public option -- Obama likely considers that a yes, promise kept -- but many liberals would say no because it didn't include that public option.

Or take openness. Obama vowed on the campaign trail to make this the most transparent administration ever -- so does that mean setting up a camera with a live feed of every single thing that happens in the Oval Office? Probably not, but depends on who you're asking. The White House would likely say that releasing logs of who enters the White House along with a televised health care debate on C-Span (late in the game and after prodding) means they've been able to hold on this pledge.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning site Politifact, an arm of the St. Petersburg Times, attempts to be a bipartisan measure of the president's promises, they call it the "Obameter." According to their scorecard, the president has kept 123 promises, compromised on 40, broken 24, stalled 84, has 232 in the works, and three are not yet rated.

The site says he's broken promises like allowing imported prescription drugs, ending no-bid contracts above $25,000,doubling the Peace Corps, allowing five days of public comment before he signs a bill, supporting human mission to moon by 2020, giving an annual "state of the world" address on national security, and recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Those are the easier ones to measure, then it comes to stickier issues like his pledge that he wouldn't raise "any form of tax increase" on a family making less than $250,000. The website says he broke that promise, but some say technically he meant income taxes. Politifact notes that provisions with the new health care bill will raise taxes in a more broad way such as the indoor tanning tax and the fact that there is a fine, brokered through income taxes, if someone doesn't have health insurance.

The bigger promises on their broken list that both Republicans and Democrats will still hammer him on, include his pledge to create a cap and trade system to reduce global warming, states extending rights of same-sex couples (although the president is not a supporter of same-sex marriage), introducing a comprehensive immigration bill in his first year, paying for national service plan without increasing the deficit and making tougher rules on lobbyists working for the administration (there are lobbyists who work in the White House and didn't follow their standard).

And then there's Guantanamo Bay. On the campaign trail Obama pledged to close it within his first year in office. Well into his second year Politifact has put this in the "Stalled" column since they say he was tripped up by Congress and the fact that he did move some detainees. Many on both sides have marked that pledge as a big-time broken promise.

Politifact also doesn't consider one that many have critics have slammed him on -- doctor choice. He promised that hat under as president with a new health care bill that you'd be able to keep your own doctor and insurance if you are happy with your coverage. Some argue under provisions of the new law, which have yet to be fully implemented, you actually do not have the option to necessarily keep your doctor.

Now on to promises kept -- which under their grading, is actually much higher at 123.

However, it's worth noting they do rate everything from Obama promising to get his daughters a dog to expanding places to hunt and fish.

Included are a slew of health care promises in the "kept" column, including passing a national plan and requiring insurance companies not to raise rates based on pre-existing conditions.

Obama is also credited with reversing restrictions on stem cell research, creating a credit card bill of rights, extending the Alternative Minimum Tax Patch, closing the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug plan, giving a speech at a major Islamic forum in his first 100 days, releasing presidential records in an effort to bring transparency, and overturning the Supreme Court's decision on Ledbetter vs. Goodyear.

The president over-delivered on one pledge: appointing a Republican to his cabinet. He actually has two -- he kept Defense Secretary Robert Gates who was President Bush's pick, and then chose Ken Salazar for his secretary of the interior.

On Iraq, the president vowed to direct military leaders to end the war, and begin removing combat brigades from Iraq. This promise was the hallmark of his campaign initially, with the 2008 election reaching the high arc of the anti-war debate. Some critics have argued that President Bush actually already had set in motion for troops to come home anyway in the timeframe that Obama gave. It's those kind of intricacies in measuring a promise that will keep historians and pundits busying "tallying" for years to come.