First Thing Obama said he will do as President

Thought it would be interesting to go back and see what Obama said would be the first thing he would do as President. Does anybody have any knowledge if he has fulfilled any of these first thing he will do as President? I really thought he would get Congress to pass a bill over the economy and have it ready for him to sign. Guess Gitmo was more of a priority.

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act," he said.

www.citizenlink.org...

The first thing I will do, when I am President, is to call in my Attorney General. Uh, and have he or she review every executive order, to determine which of those have undermined civil liberties, which are unconstitutional and I will reverse those with a stroke of a pen…”

wearechangeseattle.org...

Well, we will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I will give them a new assignment and that is to bring our troops home in a careful, responsible way, but to end this occupation in Iraq. I will call in my Secretary of State and initiate the diplomacy that's needed to make sure that exit is accompanied by negotiations between the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

www.buzzflash.com...

I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.

blogs.suntimes.com...

Feel free to add any more firsts if you come across them.



[edit on 22-1-2009 by jam321]

reply to post by jam321


Wow! he's gonna have a busy first day! All those things simultaneously too! SOunds like he's gonna need a whole lotta "hope".

reply to post by jam321


You can see everything he is accomplishing according to what he promised at the Obama Meter...


www.politifact.com...

It seems that the only thing he did was to tell the prisoners in Gitmo that they are going to be let go in a year. Great first day. This is why we are going to lose ground in the eyes of our enemies. We are just going to let them out to let them attack us again. I wonder how people who were effected by 9/11 feel about this. That the terrorist who have planned, taken part in or even attended a terrorist camp is going to be let go. Irresponsibility right out of the gate. I know that this was a political move and party pressure but he could have used a little back bone and say now we are going to keep it open till the war was over.

Originally posted by bigvig316
It seems that the only thing he did was to tell the prisoners in Gitmo that they are going to be let go in a year. Great first day. This is why we are going to lose ground in the eyes of our enemies. We are just going to let them out to let them attack us again. I wonder how people who were effected by 9/11 feel about this. That the terrorist who have planned, taken part in or even attended a terrorist camp is going to be let go. Irresponsibility right out of the gate. I know that this was a political move and party pressure but he could have used a little back bone and say now we are going to keep it open till the war was over.

You obviously do not understand how much Gitmo and the CIA Secret Prisons are a Rallying cry and recruitment tool for our enemies.

I understand that bad things may or may not go on there. But if people are willing to chop the heads off of Americans, we should treat them as if they are in the Hilton while they are prisoners. No. I am sure that nothing goes on there that doesn't go in any Federal or Supermax or any other jail or prison in American where prisoners are shaken down and roughed upped and perhaps "tortured" in order to get information to solve a murder, prevent future crime or stop a complex organization of crime to make the world better.

The same probably goes on in GITMO, except we know who the enemy is and what the crimes are and what organization is causing the terror. If we have to do a little "persuading" to get the information to save lives, to send troops where they need to me. to thwart terror plots, so be it. I think it is a good thing that if we save lives by squeezing a little bit of information out of them. Keep GITMO OPEN.

[edit on 1/22/2009 by bigvig316]

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Appreciate the source.

Do you really feel Gitmo should have been a priority?

reply to post by jam321

There are 2 threads on ATS about him removing the ban on sending oversees funds to groups that discuss abortions and about him
reviewing Bush's orders.

He's at least working at 2/4 so far, I think it is a bit unrealistic to expect these things to happen immediately as they are all complex problems.


I am not in favor of more stimulus packages, but if Obama actually does get us out of Iraq and Afghanastan I will tremendously respect him.

[edit on 22-1-2009 by asmeone2]

Originally posted by bigvig316
It seems that the only thing he did was to tell the prisoners in Gitmo that they are going to be let go in a year. Great first day. This is why we are going to lose ground in the eyes of our enemies. We are just going to let them out to let them attack us again. I wonder how people who were effected by 9/11 feel about this. That the terrorist who have planned, taken part in or even attended a terrorist camp is going to be let go. Irresponsibility right out of the gate.

Its been irresponsible to just have those POW's sitting there without any trial or reveiw of their cases for the last 6 years too.

I do not think that Obama means to simply unlock the gates and say "fly be free". I think that what he means is that it is LONG overdue for these captured terrorists to go to trial and be sentanced, which means going to extremely secured federal prisons, or execution.

Some of you sound so paranoid, reading your replies here in this thread and in a couple of others regarding the prison camp in Guato gave me a flash back as if it was 2002 all over again, with all the parinoia, fear and war drum banging sounds.

Time to get over all that crap and move into the future. And its time to put those people on trial and pass sentances that fit the crime...which is after all, the American Judicial system, and now Obama is going to put that into practice after its been stagnet for the last 6 years.




Cheers!!!!

[edit on 22-1-2009 by RFBurns]

reply to post by bigvig316


www.huffingtonpost.com...

You go get them evil terrorists!

reply to post by asmeone2

I am not in favor of more stimulus packages, but if Obama actually does get us out of Iraq and Afghanastan I will tremendously respect him.

I didn't post this to show what he hasn't done. I posted to show what he said he will do first.

As far as the quote above, if he does that I will join you in respecting him tremendously. Our troops have fought long enough and deserve a good break.

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by asmeone2

 

I am not in favor of more stimulus packages, but if Obama actually does get us out of Iraq and Afghanastan I will tremendously respect him.

I didn't post this to show what he hasn't done. I posted to show what he said he will do first.

As far as the quote above, if he does that I will join you in respecting him tremendously. Our troops have fought long enough and deserve a good break.

I know. My post is to illustrate, I think that those things may be forthcoming in the next weeks or months... they are not things that he can fix with an executive order. There is more planning than that involved.

Originally posted by bigvig316
It seems that the only thing he did was to tell the prisoners in Gitmo that they are going to be let go in a year.

Well, he didn't exactly say that, to be fair. It's not clear he's letting prisoners go...in fact, they're being vague on the details so far.

As for releasing prisoners, according to the BBC Gitmo...

...once held some 775 inmates who were accused of links to al-Qaeda or the Taleban but many have since been freed or transferred to foreign governments, leaving some 245 men still in custody.

No numbers there on which were set loose or which were transferred. Of those 245 in custody: 50 "or so might face trial," 60 have already been cleared for release (before Obama took over), and the rest are in limbo. So it would truthful (though slanted, for good or ill) to say "Bush released the majority of prisoners from Gitmo."

@OP: Great thread, star and flag.

reply to post by RFBurns

Its been irresponsible to just have those POW's sitting there without any trial or reveiw of their cases for the last 6 years too.

This is interesting. Do you feel obama has articulated this point? Many people, and I will include myself, have been under the impression it was because of the torture issue.

Starred

Thought i'd dust off this thread with a PolitiFact update.

It's not strictly a 'the first thing I will do' kind of list, but it's good to hold politicians accountable for their campaigns. They list the current count of campaign promises for Obama as follows:

* Promise Kept 28
* Compromise 7
* Promise Broken 6
* Stalled 4
* In the Works 63
* No Action 406

The biggest category is obviously "No Action" by a wide margin. They link out all the promises and provide evidence one way or the other. The most recent update is yesterday.