Reality Strikes Campaign Promises

Recently both state and national candidates have found that it's easy to make campaign promises but much harder to keep them when elected.

For example, newly elected NC Governor Bev Perdue campaigned on a promise to give free tuition to students entering community college. On her campaign website it says, "Bev also believes that the state should go further and send out the powerful message that all students who graduate from high school and enter a community college full-time will be able to have their tuition waived. Thus our community colleges will become an option of unmatched educational opportunity for high school graduates."

Upon taking the oath of office, Governor Perdue backed away from that promise. Here's what one report said. "Perdue's education platform has already come under fire even before she took office after a News & Observer interview revealed that Perdue would rescind her campaign promise to work for free community college tuition for citizens."I don't believe that my first priority and first accomplishment will be free community college because of the budget [difficulties]," Perdue said. "It's much harder than it was this time last year.""

I am not writing this to be mean. But I do want to point out an important fact. We must hold candidates responsible for what they promise and what they actually deliver. We must look closely at their ability to deliver prior to casting our vote for them. We must vote for substance over style and reality over rhetoric.