Obama Waffles on Mandatory Community Service

It didn't take long for president-elect Barack Obama to start waffling. That's good news for those of us at West Wing Waffles as it ensures the popularity of Obama Waffles for years to come. Shortly after winning the election, Obama's Change.gov website posted 25 agenda items which outlined the approach that an Obama administration would take. Much has been made of the fact that this agenda has since been scrubbed.

Among those items was Obama's controversial proposal of mandatory community service. Here's the original text:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

Sometime last Friday, Obama waffled on the "require" clause, softening the verbiage to read "by setting a goal." In what might be a double-waffle, Obama also sugarcoated the deal for college students engaged in community service by tossing them $4,000:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

Click on the screen shots to see enlargements of the before and after wording from Barack Obama's America Serves plan: