11/03/09

Regardless of who's in the oval office, countless Americans either love or hate their president, depending on if he's a member of their political party. After Barack Obama has been in the driver's seat for a year, citizens are considering how well he's done.

Former Magic Valley Resident Cheryl Sandy says, “Well, I think he's kind of playing the middle of the road. I think he's trying to appease a lot of people. He's made a lot of promises. I think it's pretty difficult for any president at this time to deliver all the promises that he made.”

A website called 'Politifact.Com,’ a division of the Saint Petersburg, Florida Times' Newspaper, quotes the president as saying, 'I want you to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable.'

'Politifact' is tracking 515 of Obama’s promises, and points out which ones he's kept, which ones he's broken, and which one's he's compromised on, as well as which ones have stalled and which ones are still in the works.

Reggie Byrum, who was visiting the area from Montana says, “I hope he doesn't take all our gun rights away, that's my biggest problem with him, and I know there are probably a lot of other people. And I don't really have much more to say about him.”

A local political analyst says the stock market is up 50 percent, but unemployment is still severe. He says from a historian's perspective, it's too soon to tell how effective president Obama’s policies have been.

Dr. Russ Tremayne, Associate Professor of History at the College of Southern Idaho says, “It's very limited and I think we need to wait until 2010 to get a sense on judgment, that is, how does the public access the accomplishments of Obama. And probably at this point it's mixed, depending on how you think the economy's doing.