Americans consistently doubt that politicians will do what they say they'll do: One Rasmussen poll, for instance, found only 4 percent — barely more than the margin of error — believe most politicians keep their campaign promises, while 83 percent of likely voters in the same poll said they don't.
Our cynicism may not be entirely justified, per data shared at FiveThirtyEight. A tally of studies from the past half century finds that U.S. presidents keep an average of 67 percent of their promises from the campaign trail.
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Of course, what exactly counts as a promise "kept" is grounds for debate.
For example, FiveThirtyEight cites Politifact's Obameter and GOP Pledge-O-Meter — which track the rate of kept promises for President Obama and congressional Republican leadership, respectively — as evidence that each keeps their promises at a rate of about 70 percent. But that figure is a combination of promises Politifact rates as kept plus promises on which Obama or the GOP compromised. Subtract the compromises and the picture begins to look much more familiar, with each meter showing fewer than half of promises kept.
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