On Promises

Over the last few days, I’ve heard a lot of people say “Obama isn’t going to take away your guns, I promise”, or “Your taxes will go down, I promise”, or “If you already have health coverage from your employer, nothing will change, I promise”, etc.
Such people don’t have the authority to make such promises, as they have no idea what anyone else will or will not do. They also have no negative side effects if they’re wrong.
If a store says they’ll repair or replace a product under warranty and they don’t, a consumer has many options: escalating to a higher-level manager or corporate office, publishing their expeirence, etc. But if John Q. Public says “That store will replace anything that breaks under warranty!”, then such a promise is worth the air it’s spoken with. Same thing with promises made on the internet.