Obama 2012: From 'Yes We Can' to 'Whatever'

Maybe it has something to do with his failure to deliver on campaign promises?
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 5, 2011 6:55 AM CDT

President Obama is officially running for reelection, but somehow his campaign slogan has gone from "Yes We Can" to "You Know, Whatever," Jon Stewart complained last night on the Daily Show. Obama's first campaign video features supporters with a disturbing lack of enthusiasm, saying (and Stewart is, of course, paraphrasing here) things like, "I mean, I don't really like him, I don't really trust him, but what are we gonna do? Learn someone else's name?"

"Perhaps the ennui is the natural result of what happens when campaign promises are exposed to oxygen," Stewart theorized, pointing specifically to Obama's campaign promise to make the White House more transparent. Unfortunately, in reality, "this has been the administration that's prosecuted more whistleblowers in two years than in the preceding 40 years, that meets with lobbyists across the street from the White House so they don't have to disclose they're meeting with lobbyists, and, this is true, censored nearly 200 pages of internal emails about their efforts to make government more transparent." Then there was that pesky transparency award... (More President Obama stories.)

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