John J. Pitney Jr. Professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College:
"Obama has promised to cleanse American politics of dishonesty and special-interest influence. Some of his supporters have even compared him to Jesus.
The McCain campaign has pounded Obama for falling short of his own standards. And Obama has supplied plenty of ammunition. He broke his promise on public funding of his fall campaign. He pledged that he would fire any staffer who criticized Palin for private family matters. When a staffer did that, Obama reneged again.
In fact, if Obama were faithful to his own word, he would not even be in the race. Here’s what he said when he took his senatorial oath in 2005: “I’m not running for national office. I am here to be sworn in as the United States senator from the state of Illinois. I will not be running for president in `08.”
Obama has defended himself with lawyerly hedging and parsing. In other words, it all depends on what the meaning of the word “promise” is. No wonder Obamamania has cooled. You can’t keep looking like a messiah when you keep talking like Clinton."
To read the rest of Professor Pitney's essay click on the title for a link.
