President Barack Obama has made a boatload of promises for the economy.

He's pledged to do plenty of things during his presidency -- cut the deficit in half, double exports and slash unemployment. The list goes on and on. Some have worked out, and others not so much.

But what exactly did candidate Obama promise to do for the economy in 2008 in order to win favor with voters? And did he follow through?

He promised to pass a new health care law. Done. Push Wall Street reform. That's done too.

He also said he would establish a credit card bill of rights, ramp up loan programs for small businesses and expand eligibility for Medicaid. Done, done and done.

But on a few other campaign issues, the president has fallen short.

The Bush tax cuts

Obama repeatedly said in 2008 that he wanted the Bush tax cuts to expire for couples with incomes over $250,000.

His best shot came at the end of 2010, when the Bush tax cuts were slated to expire, an event that would have raised the top two income tax rates to 36 percent (from 33 percent) and 39.6 percent (from 35 percent) for high income households.

But after encountering opposition from congressional Republicans, Obama caved, instead cutting a deal that kept the tax cuts in place in exchange for several other stimulus measures that were top White House priorities.

Those measures included a break on how much is deducted from workers' paychecks for Social Security, tax incentives to encourage businesses to step up their investments and an extension of unemployment benefits.

In defending his decision, Obama said that he had to break his promise because his plan would have never survived an encounter with a Republican Party emboldened by its mid-term electoral success.

"This has to do with what can we get done right now," Obama said. "I'm as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I've been for years," he continued. "In the long run, we simply can't afford them."

At the same time, Obama had another promise: He pledged to end the freshly-extended tax cuts when they expired at the end of 2012.

Fast forward two years and the Bush tax cuts are expected to be a major sticking point in negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff that Congress will likely tackle during their post-election lame duck session.

Will Obama be able to keep his promise this time? Stay tuned.

Windfall tax on oil companies

While the Bush tax cuts are still a part of the national conversation, a windfall tax on oil company profits is not.

Almost exactly four years ago, Obama was riding high after Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, and he made a promise.

"I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills," Obama said.

The windfall tax would have skimmed the top off the mega-profits oil companies were earning. Average families would have received $1,000 checks as a result.

At the time, gas prices were at $3.70 per gallon and climbing. Bashing oil companies was popular. But by inauguration day, gas prices had declined sharply, and Obama abandoned the idea.

Joshua Freed, a clean energy policy expert at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, said it's no surprise that the windfall tax fell by the wayside.

Freed, who was an outside adviser to the Obama campaign in 2008, characterized the issue as a narrow area of policy that has been overtaken by movement on larger issues, including broad corporate tax reform.

And he pointed to other Obama accomplishments, including fuel economy standards and a decline in dependency on foreign oil as meaningful progress made by the administration in the area of energy policy.