It took more than a year after Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, made this pledge, but in October 2011, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
Their passage was somewhat remarkable for 2011, not exactly a year marked by bi-partisan cooperation.
All three agreements were initiated under President George W. Bush. But they never won approval from Congress, which at the time was controlled by Democrats who objected over labor and environmental issues.
When Republicans took control in 2010, they made passage a priority, and the White House wanted to get it done too.
"The result was an unusual political victory shared by President Obama and congressional Republicans amid a year of partisan warfare,” the Los Angeles Times wrote.
The Korea agreement was an especially difficult accomplishment for Obama, politically speaking, because he risked alienating his own base — liberals are typically skeptical of free trade. So the GOP could not have fulfilled this promise without the president"s cooperation and maneuvering. But in the name of bi-partisanship, we rate this a Promise Kept.