What A Shock: Newsweek Just Figured Out That Obama Isn't Transparent

What A Shock: Newsweek Just Figured Out That Obama Isn't Transparent

This June 20, 2009 Newsweek article by Michael Isikoff just floors me:

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure. Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a "new era" of openness, "nothing has changed," says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. "For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies."

Look, it's like a lot of the other areas where Obama's policies are turning out to be Bush-Lite (and sometimes not even Lite). The policies are being driven by both international and partisan political reality, not beautiful little fantasies that delusionary sorts wanted to believe could happen.

It's the same reason that I don't criticize Nancy Pelosi for her willingness to go along with "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" in 2002; I criticize her for her hypocrisy in criticizing the Bush Administration for adopting policies that she approved, and she thought were necessary for national security.

The Obama Administration told a bunch of whoppers: it was going to support gay rights; it was going to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell; it was going to close Gitmo right away; it was going to pull our troops out of Iraq almost immediately; it was going to have no lobbyists working in the government; it was going to be transparent; it was going to have every bill visible in final form for five days before Obama signed it.

And unfortunately, the mainstream media bought all this garbage, asking no questions, never challenging candidate Obama about how all this was going to happen. And they are now just barely starting to challenge President Obama when they discover that he either lied to them, or didn't have a clue what he was getting himself into as President.

I had some concerns that Sarah Palin wasn't qualified to be President, in the event that McCain didn't last the first term. But I'm guessing that being governor of a state--even a small population state like Alaska--means that she has had at least a few hints about what is involved in running the executive branch of a government. It's clear that Obama did not have a clue, and even McCain's knowledge was necessarily limited to what he learned from being in Congress.