In a Nutshell

Few things are less meaningful in our current political culture than the words and commitments that come out of Barack Obama's mouth.

  Glenn Greenwald

A couple examples:

Obama emphatically vowed in October, 2007 (when he was seeking the Democratic nomination) that -- as his spokesman put it -- he "will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies," only to turn around eight months later (once he had secured the nomination) and not only vote against the Dodd/Feingold filibuster of the FISA bill that vested retroactive telecom immunity, but also then voted for the underlying bill itself.

[...]

[H]ere's what Barack Obama said on [indefinite detention] in May of last year when he placed himself in front of the U.S. Constitution to give us a lecture on the principles and guarantees in that document:

In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man. If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight.

A year-and-a-half later [...] his official policy is that no charges are needed, and no trials or even military tribunals required, in order to imprison someone forever.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.