In 2001 at least Mark Warner waited until he was elected to say he wouldn’t be cutting taxes as promised during the campaign. In 2008 Barry Obama is already dropping his expectation of “Change”.
What a surprise – hey “Middle Class Americans” – do you feel like the carrot just got pulled out from in front of your face?
Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.
The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.
The Warner legacy . . .From Richmond-Times
Promising to work with the Republicans who then controlled the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, Warner — an investor who never had held elective office — vowed discipline in fiscal affairs. He also endorsed the car-tax cut and said he would not raise taxes — positions he abandoned as governor.
Warner has argued that his hand was forced by circumstances beyond his control; that the budget — when he took office in January 2002 — was in far worse shape than he had imagined several months earlier as a candidate.
The result: the biggest tax increase in Virginia history, coupled with a cap on one of the state’s largest tax cuts.
Filed under: 2008 Elections, National Politics, Teleprompter Barry, Virginia Politics
