PROMISES PROMISES

"Promises, Promises" is a musical. It was based on the 1960 film "The Apartment" by Billy Wilder. (The movie poster features a racy picture of Jane Mansfield.) The music is by Burt Bacharach. The lyrics were written by Hal David. The "book" was written by Neil Simon. It was quite successful and resulted in a Top 40 hit for Dionne Warwick for the title song.

Why torture me with this musical trivia, you say?

Mr. Obama's liberal supporters may need to adopt it as their theme song, as they seem to feel jilted by his promises. I feel for them. We Republicans feel that way about the last Congress.

Just as you hope your lover won't break his or her promises at least until after the honeymoon, a candidate's supporters would like to think their candidate would not break his promises even before he officially lists the White House as his current address.

But, it seems that the bloom is off the rose. Obama the candidate separated himself from rival Hillary Clinton, and later John McCain, by emphasizing his opposition to the war in Iraq ab initio (from the start)(yes, I love me some Latin).

It is incovenient to remember those promises, but Obama promised to begin to end the war on his first day in office. Lefties had the image of The One removing his hand from the Bible, pulling pen and paper from his overcoat, and signing an executive order bringing the troops back home from Iraq. And within days, boys in camo gear would arrive at airports, hug wives and girlfriends, or not ask and not tell, cuddle babies, shed tears of joy and wave banners emblazoned with the picture of their Beloved President, the long awaited liberal messiah. They might even sing the Obama song.

But in the midst of this beautiful dream, Liberals awoke to the harsh alarm of Their Candidate appointing the dreaded Clinton as Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton supported the war, though criticized the conduct of it, and refused to back away from it. Now she will run State. Also, her husband (since the liberals confuse his experience with hers, I will take the liberty of hanging it around her neck also) invaded Kosovo and Bosnia and fired the famous Monica Missles at that other Islamic country with whom we are engaged.

Then, Their Candidate retained the services of one Robert Gates (an intelligent move in my estimation). Gates is no liberal and does not support immediate and undignified flight from the Middle East. Now, the Liberal Democrats are singing along with Dionne "those kind of promises can just destroy your life".

Then, the final reality shatters the dream of promises made and kept. Their Candidate now says that on his first day in office he will begin to “design a plan for a responsible drawdown”. Notice the word "begin" and "design". This is a long way from "pull out" or "run like heck".

Now the liberals may not even want to sing "Promises Promises". They'll be wailing along with The Who: "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

As Mork used to say: "reality, what a concept!"

So, to all you Lefties out there, go here and hear Dionne sing "Promises Promises".

Take some comfort. I can no longer sing Tom Petty's "you don't know how I feel".

'cause you do.