On Dec. 22, 2010, Obama scored a major lame-duck session victory when the U.S. Senate voted 71-26 to ratify the New START arms control treaty with Russia. Although the treaty teetered in the balance for several weeks, 13 Republicans ultimately joined a unanimous Democratic caucus in the Senate, giving the treaty the two-thirds majority it required for final approval.

In a press conference after the vote, Obama called ratification of the new START treaty his "top national security priority for this session of Congress."

"This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades, and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with Russia," Obama said. "With this treaty, our inspectors will also be back on the ground at Russian nuclear bases. So we will be able to trust but verify."

The new START pact commits the U.S. and Russia to reduce the number of strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 -- down from the current limit of 2,200.That's 74 percent lower than the limit of the 1991 START Treaty and 30 percent lower than the deployed strategic warhead limit of the 2002 Moscow Treaty, according to a fact sheet on the treaty provided by the White House.  It also will enable on-site inspections to resume after being temporarily halted when the treaty was allowed to expire last year.

In addition, the countries agreed to cut to 800 the combined limit of deployed and nondeployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments. It also includes a separate combined limit of 700 for deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

In other words, it addresses Obama's goal of reducing nuclear weapons -- whether deployed or nondeployed, whether strategic or nonstrategic.

The Russian Parliament still needs to sign off on the treaty to make things official, but the State Duma already voted 350 to 58 to approve the pact in the first of three readings.

According to a Dec. 23, 2010 story by Peter Baker of the New York Times, "Given the authoritarian nature of Moscow's political system, that approval is seen as certain."

Obama laid the groundwork for the treaty when he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed off on a treaty in April 2010 after more than a year of intense negotiations. The final major hurdle was getting a two-thirds majority in the Senate to approve it -- no small feat in a highly partisan political year.

According to the New York Times, the new START is the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years, and the first that a Democratic president has both signed and pushed through the Senate.

We rate this promise Kept.