Governing is different from campaigning

Perhaps it's because I've become more cynical each year that I cover politics both nationally and locally, but one of the issues I kept pointing out during this past presidential election was that the promises being made, that people were basing their reasoning for voting on were not going to happen. This doesn't necessarily mean that I think that John McCain would have been a better president, I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that we as a nation have allowed hype and false promises to exist because we keep buying it...

Now we are entering the end of the honeymoon period with President Obama and some more to the right are taking issue with him on Gitmo and some more on the left are taking issue with his recent decision to not support the Justice Department criminally prosecuting at least one Bush administration official for torture, as a token gesture.

Though I have to say, it's rather stupid to have a meeting supposedly "off the record" when it's clear more than a few sources talked about what happened that was supposed to be "private" -- another lesson learned for today's time -- very little is private.

What bothered me most wasn't that Obama has changed his position from what he campaigned on when it comes to any of these issues, I expected it. This part of the Newsweek article bothered me:

At another point, Obama surprised some of those present by suggesting that his aides had received poll results showing that the American people were still behind him on national security and the war on terror. Obama told the group that the poll showed "50 percent believe Obama is doing more to protect security than Bush had," one source present said. Only 25 percent of those polled thought Bush had done more to protect security, according to the figures cited by Obama, the source added.

Asked about the poll, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said the White House does not conduct polls. Pressed on where the figures the president cited came from, LaBolt said the White House does not normally comment on what takes place in private meetings.

You can't govern by polls, especially since most polls are junk. That demonstrates he's still more concerned with how people view him than he should be, the campaign is over...Being President of a nation such as ours where people are so quick to want to believe when it comes to campaigning yet also so quick to throw stones when you are elected is a challenge...