Obama Breaks Transparency Promise

Another of Barack Obama’s famous “change” campaign promises has been broken, this time involving a level of transparency he assured had not existed in any administration.

Pledging the “most open and transparent transition in history,” Team Obama vowed to reveal details of transition meetings with groups on its heavily promoted change web site. Dates and organizations represented at official meetings in the transition headquarters or agency offices were supposed to be posted on the web site for easy public access.

In fact, Obama’s transition co-chair (John Podesta) specifically issued a transparency policy never before seen in a presidential transition team. It promised to create an easy-to-navigate section that allows the public to track meetings and view documents. However, there is no list of meetings on the site even though many have been held with power brokers and probably special interest groups. 

The Chicago newspaper columnist that discovered this latest Team Obama violation, points out that secrecy has always been par for the course throughout the president elect’s political career. She reveals that Obama’s Senate staff had been very selective about what Obama Senate-related meetings they disclosed and seemed to be guided by a “less is best” policy.

All too familiar with the inner workings of the Obama secrecy machine, the writer recalls how bizarre it was to hear the Illinois Senator promise to post details of official meetings on the internet during a 2007 presidential primary campaign event in a New Hampshire school gym.