Where Is The Transparency At Change.gov?

Posted by: Tristan

“Obama has promised to create a “transparent and connected White House.” He’s also promised to appoint a Cabinet-rank chief technology officer to promote openness in federal agencies and help the new president communicate with the electorate.”

Barack Obama hadn’t even set foot in the White House as President-Elect when he attempted his first cover-up.

Change.gov is the official Obama website.  It is where Obama spells out among other things, his political agenda.

Now, the site is a work in progress, but if you went to the site on Friday and clicked on Agenda, you’d see this.  It lays out the Obama agenda on various political topics like the economy, homeland security and Iraq.

Now, this agenda, as spelled out, wasn’t the most objective document one has seen on a US government site.

For example, take a look at this quote from the Iraq page:

Since the surge began, more than 1,000 American troops have died, and despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.

Just the kind of defeatist rhetoric that we’ve come to expect from the Democrats.

But what may raise eyebrows is what you see when you go to  http://change.gov/agenda/ today.  If you click on the link, you’ll noticed that instead of a list of topics you’ll just see this:

The Agenda

President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden have developed innovative approaches to challenge the status quo in Washington and to bring about the kind of change America needs.

The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies. The principal priorities of the Obama Administration include: a plan to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.

…and that’s it.  Want to see what the Obama agenda on poverty is?  Too bad.  What if, in a few years, you wanted to see what campaign promises Obama had fulfilled?  Well, good luck with that.  You’ll have to try to piece them together from the hundreds of speeches he gave over the campaign.

Douchebag Report is glad to see that the Obama administration has set a precedent for transparency for the next four years or so.