Here is President Obama on January 21, 2009 – the day after his inauguration – promising a new era of transparency.
So, how is he doing?
Let’s see, he won’t release a report documenting that one out of every seven Gitmo detainees goes back to a life of inflicting terror after release. It seems the president is only willing to release information that supports his political positions.
He also promised a new transparency when it comes to spending our hard earned money. Another dismal failure.
To build support for the stimulus package, President Obama vowed unprecedented transparency, a big part of which, he said, would be allowing taxpayers to track money to the street level on Recovery.gov. Together with a spruced-up WhiteHouse.gov, the site would inject the stodgy federal bureaucracy with the same Webby accessibility and Facebook-generation flair that defined the Obama campaign.
But three months after the bill was signed, Recovery.gov offers little beyond news releases, general breakdowns of spending, and acronym-laden spreadsheets and timelines. And congressional Democrats, state officials and advocates of open government worry that the White House cannot come close to clearing the high bar it set.
He’s about at transparent as mud. But on the bright side, Michelle Obama made the cover of Time Magazine - again.
